Foxy Lady: Old Version
by recodan
Summary: This is the old version of mah story. Will be starting a new, update, less mary sue version. Bromwigya, huzzah, and forsooth. FemNaru x Shino.
1. Chapter 1

" We welcome two new teachers to the academy this year, and I'm sure they will be great." said the headmaster of the ninja academy, gesturing to Mizuki and Iruka. There was a light applause for the welcome. " We have several issues to discuss for the new year, so let's get to it."

Despite the fact that it was a menial meeting, Iruka felt charged. The excitement of becoming a teacher at the academy practically radiated from him. He and Mizuki had worked so hard for this posting, and he was going to give it his everything.

" One side note," said the headmaster, brow furrowing. " There is a certain child attending this year, one Uzamaki Naru." A hushed silence came over the instructors, the unsaid words evident to everyone. The demon child. " We need to decide how we are going to…handle her."

" I'll take her." said Iruka, raising his hand. None of the other teachers seemed interested and he knew that taking a unpopular job was a way to make friends. " I'll probably not be a very good teacher, so she won't learn anything to dangerous from me." he said with a slight chuckle.

" While I am sure you are a fine instructor, that may not be a bad idea." said the headmaster, nodding his head. The other teachers were all looking to Iruka thankfully.

0000

Iruka was trying to breath deep, is favorite calming exercise. It wasn't working. He'd spent a week getting all his lesson plans ready, making seating charts for his students, and looking forward to when his students arrived, but now his nerves had almost put him into a panic. With a sigh he walked over to the classroom door and opened it.

The first child to enter was a dark haired Uchiha, followed by girl with pink hair and a Yamanaka. A pudgy Akimachi, a Inuzuka and a small puppy, a timid looking Hyuuga, a Aburmae in a pint sized trench coat, and others entered. The demon child didn't seem to be present, but that didn't bother him much. Iruka directed them to the seats he had chosen for them and stood in front of the class.

" Hello, everyone. I'm Umino Iruka, one of your instructors for the next several years." he said, introducing himself.

" Hello, sensei." said the class in unison.

" I will teach you most of the time, but other teachers will take over from time to time. My friend Mizuki, for example, is better at taijutsu, so he will show you that. But, before we teach you anything, I want to have you all introduce yourselves."

The students went in order, front to back, saying their names. When they arrived in the back row, Iruka noticed that the seat he had selected for the demon child had been filled by a small girl. The girl was sitting and staring down, her face hidden by her long untamed golden hair. Her posture made the Hyuuga girl look confident and forceful. She was twisting something in her hands nervously, but Iruka was not sure what it was. The line of introductions came to her, but she didn't seem to notice, sitting in silence.

" Hey, its your turn." said the Nara boy sitting by her. She jumped as if stuck, looking towards the boy. The Nara boy stared back, but then opened his eyes in surprise and slid his chair away. " What is that?" he said, pointing to the thing in her hands. " and what's with your eyes?" Sensing trouble, Iruka walked to the top row.

He came to a halt near the girl, eyes wide with shock. She had a tail. A foxes tail. She was wearing what looked like a self made pair of pants to allow for it, and she was twisting the end of her tail end her hand. She was wearing a white t-shirt that was slightly too large for her, making her look even smaller than she was.

" Are you Uzamaki Naru?" asked Iruka, keeping his voice steady. She girl seemed to shrink.

" I-I am." she said, voice filled with terror. She didn't look up, avoiding eye contact.

" Look at me when we talk." Iruka said, feeling unkind. The girl looked up reluctantly, revealing her face. Her eyes were red with slit like pupils and there were black marks on her face that resembled whiskers. Iruka was stunned for a moment.

" I'm sorry." said the girl, looking downwards again. " I didn't mean to be bad."

" You weren't." said Iruka, recovering. What came out next surprised him. " In fact, you did very well."

The girl looked back up at him, obviously confused.

" I didn't hear or see you enter." Iruka said with a nerous smile.

" I tried…I tried to get in…without being noticed." said Naru in an apologetic voice.

" And you did a good job of it. I was even looking for you and I didn't see you." praised Iruka. " For a ninja, there is no skill more important then stealth."

Naru looked up at him, face full of wonder. Iruka felt ashamed of himself, wondering if the girl had ever received a compliment in her life.

00000

Naru sat against the wall of the school during recess, watching the other kids play. The boy with the puppy came running by, laughing while the small dog followed him. She watched them run off. They moved so slowly. Why did everyone else move so slowly?

Even more confusing to her was the Iruka man who taught her class. He had seemed mean and scared of her like everyone else when he saw her eyes, but then he had said those nice things to her. The old man with the pipe and the strange robe that occasionally talked to her was like that. She liked him. He smelled bad from the smoke, but he was always nice to her and gave her some money. Everyone seemed to like him, probably because he was nice and gave them money too.

" Hey!" someone yelled. Naru began to twist the end of her tail again. She hated being alone. But everyone was scared of her eyes. " Hey, Naru!" She looked up in surprise. Walking towards her was the girl dressed all in white, the other blonde girl, and he girl with pink hair. " Why are you sitting over there?"

" I'm sorry, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to!" Naru said, leaping to her feet.

" No, no, I didn't mean that!" said the loud blonde girl. " Come over and join us!"

Naru blinked, not believing her ears. She knew the girl hadn't said what she though, no, hoped she had said.

" Why is your hair all messy?" asked the girl with pink hair. " Did your mom not have time to comb it?"

" I don't have a mom." Naru said, standing up cautiously.

" Oh!" squeaked the pink hair girl. " I'm sorry, I didn't know!"

" Hey, we could comb it for you!" suggested the blonde girl.

" You'd do that?" Naru asked incredulously.

" Sure!" said the blonde girl, taking out her comb. " You need to look good so the boys notice you."

" I don't want to be noticed." Naru said, looking down. " People just get afraid of my eyes when they notice me."

" Oh, come on. Your eyes aren't that weird." said Ino, trying to cheer her up.

" Yes they are. They're red and ugly." said Naru, feeling tears begin to form in the eyes she hated so much.

" Mine are worse." said the girl dressed in white. Naru looked up at her. The girls eyes were a milky white, making her look blind. " If I look too hard they start to hurt and I see things. My father says that they are weak."

" What do you see?" asked the pink haired girl.

" I see…though things…." said the girl in white, blushing. " Sometimes…I see though peoples clothes."

Naru, despite herself, giggled with the other two girls. The blonde one began to comb her hair. She almost cried out. She'd never hair her hair combed before, and even though some of the hairs got caught and hurt, it felt wonderful. The blonde girl took out a small mirror when she was finished with Naru's hair, holding it for her to see. Instead of the wild mass she was used to, Naru now had two long, pretty ponytails. Her hair shone brightly in the sunlight.

" Wow." was all she could say.

" Thanks. I'm Ino by the way." said the blonde girl. " This is Sakura and Hinata." she said, pointing to the other two. " I bet were going to become friends."

" Really?" asked Naru, reeling at the prospect.

" Sure!" said Sakura, smiling sweetly.

" I am sorry to interrupt." said a voice behind them. " Have you seen a bug with a green spot on his left wing and a red one on the right?" The girls turned and spotted the tall boy in the trench coat. " I lost him a few moments ago and am trying to find him before recess. My father says I need to learn to control them better, and if I lose any more he will be upset."

" A bug?" asked Sakura in disbelief.

" Do you have another we could compare it with?" said Ino in a mocking tone.

" I do. One moment." said the boy. A small black bug crawled out of the neck of the coat onto the boy's cheek. Ino and Sakura looked disgusted.

" I will try to find it." said Hinata. She closed her eyes, looking like she was trying to focus. She opened her eyes, which looked different. Unfortunately, she looked straight at Shino. She eeped, blushed, and shut her eyes. The boy did not understand why the girls began to giggle.

" Can I see the bug?" said Naru, holding out a clawed hand. The boy made a quiet buzzing sound and the bug flew over and landed on her palm.

" Don't touch it!" shrieked Ino. Naru held the palm to her nose and sniffed. The bug twitched, unhappy with the situation but staying put. Naru help her palm back out and the bug returned to the boy.

" I'm sorry. I havn't smelled it over here." said Naru apologetically.

" Thank you." said the boy, turning and walking away.

" You can smell bugs?" asked Hinata.

" You can't?" said Naru, looking to Hinata in surprise.

" No. Nobody cam smell something like that." chirped Ino.

" Oh." said Naru. " I think that's like my eyes and ears then. I can hear really well and see in the dark."

" Cool." said Sakura. " How can you do that?" she asked.

" I don't know. I think it's like my tail and eyes and stuff." said Naru, twisting her tail in her hands nervously.

" I was about to ask about the tail." said Ino.

" I don't know why I have them but I do." said Naru, a pained expression on her face.

" And your fingernails?" said Ino, pointing to Naru's clawed hands.

" I tried to cut them, but I broke the files and clippers." said Naru, looking at her hands. " I have to be careful not to cut things."

" That's really cool." said Sakura. " I bet you don't need scissors to open things, do you?"

" No." said Naru, smiling slightly.

" Hey, this is probably going to sound mean…" said Ino, sounding nervous. " But why are you wearing those awful clothes?" The girls grimaced as Naru shrank visabally.

" The storekeepers get scared of my eyes and won't let me in." said Naru, beginning to cry.

" Then after school, lets go get you something!" said Ino. " I spend a lot of money on clothes, so if we go in with you they won't be able to turn you out!"

" Really?" said Naru excitedly. " I have money I could bring! I'd really like some new shirts and a coat!"

" And pants." said Ino, pointing at the poorly stitched trousers.

" They won't fit." said Naru, flicking her tail.

" My mom could alter them for you. She's really good at that." said Sakura, smiling sweetly.

" Recess is over!" called Iruka from the classroom door. Grinning widely Naru ran with the other students, going slowly so she didn't outpace them.

0000000

It had been a wonderful day for Naru. Iruka-sensei had been nice to her, the girls in the class had been nice to her, and she had a lot more clothes now. She arrived at her small apartment and raced inside, shutting the door quickly. She changed out the pants she had made herself and the t-shirt she had stolen, throwing them away. She opened the small dresser the orphanage had provided for the first time, finally having something to put in. Ino had forced the shopkeepers to sell to her and Sakura's mother had, despite looking afraid of her eyes, worked quickly and done a incredible job.

She had never spent much of the money the old man with the pipe had given her so she was able to afford a lot. Ino had protested her choice, but she now had dozens of wonderful, bright orange shirts. She loved the color. The pants and shorts she had bought were all similar colors. She couldn't help herself and tried on almost everything as she put them away. She now had plenty of socks and a new, nice pair of shoes. She had even bought herself a kimono, though it was pink. She put it on and walked over to the mirror, admiring the beautiful silk.

Ino had also showed her how to comb and pigtail her hair on her own. She began to practice, feeling pretty for the first time. She knew she was supposed to be training to be a ninja, but she wanted to know what it was like for once.

000000

The next day, she was the first one to the academy.

When Iruka-sensei arrived he was surprised to see her in the classroom, but smiled at her nicely. The other students arrived shortly thereafter and the class began.

" Today we are going to begin working on the first technique I will be testing you on and later start with basic hand to hand techniques." said Iruka. " What is the most important thing for a ninja to be able to do?"

" Beat people up!" shouted Kiba.

" Well, that's good too, but not quite right." said Iruka with a laugh.

" Stay undetected." said Naru, speaking up carefully.

" Correct." said Iruka. " Tell me, if a man with a sword walked into the classroom right now, would you be scared and try to escape?"

" No! I'd attack!" said Kiba.

" Quiet." said Iruka. " You would be scared. But what if a friend of yours walked though the door? I don't think you would expect them to attack you. The Disguise Technique is one of the most valuable techniques for a ninja because it allows you to take any form, such as another persons appearance or a object. I was on a mission once where I escaped detection by turning into a rock and hiding for several hours. What uses can you think the ability to turn into something else?"

" Having no one know who you are." said Naru, sounding excited.

" Sneaking around." said Choji, munching on a bag of chips.

" Getting close to a target and catching them unawares, allowing you to strike when they are off guard and cannot realiate." said Sasuke. The other students looked at him in awe.

" All correct. I will be right back. I'm going to go get your disguises for you to practice with." said Iruka, walking outside.

" All right, teachers gone!" cheered Kiba. The dog on his head yipped happily. Before anything could happen, the old man with the pipe walked in. " Woah, the Third!" said Kiba, stating the obvious.

" I thought I'd come by and check up on Iruka. He's a new teacher, and I was wondering if he was having any problems." said the old man, puffing on the pipe. " Has anyone seen him?"

" He went to get us disguises." said Shikamaru from where he was trying to nap. The Third disappeared in a puff of smoke, being replaced by Iruka. Most of the students gasped in awe.

" That is the other two uses of the technique. First, you can assume the form of someone trustworthy to your targets and gather information." said Iruka walking back in front of the class. " Second, it uses chakra to transform you, so no disguise is necessary. Everyone come to the front of the class."

Iruka showed the students the hand seals and set them to practicing the motion while he explained how to focus on what you wanted to turn into. He then had them attempt to transform into him. Most of them were unsuccessful, but the Uchiha managed to partially change shape and to his surprise, Naru became a perfect copy on her first try.

" How did you do that?" asked Sakura jealously. Iruka suddenly remembered the stories for foxes transforming and tricking people.

" Some people have natural affinities for certain techniques." said Iruka, regaining the classes attention ad Naru changed back. " For example, some people can use fire techniques with greater skill than others, just because who they are. This is a example of this. Everyone had certain things that they are just better at than others and things they aren't as good at. The other teacher Mizuki is better at me at taijutsu, but I can use ninjutsu better. However, with practice, you can always improve and match others."

Naru smiled proudly as the other students looked impressed at her.

00000

It had been months since the beginning of the academy and Naru had began to feel like she fit in. She had become good friends with the other girls in her class and felt truly happy. She had gotten her first report card a few weeks ago and while she was sad that she was unable to show it to her parents like the other students, she still felt proud.

She was easily the best in the class with the disguise technique, though she could barely produce a clone or manage the replacement technique. Her hand to hand skills her other strong point. Mizuki taught them that and he didn't seem to like her as well as Iruka did. She was much faster than the other students and had sharper senses, which gave her superior reactions. While she was the smallest girl in the class and not very strong, she could hit faster than they could. She took care to never use her claws, though she knew she would have to if she really fought.

She set out for class early in the morning. The sun had risen and bathed the village in a pleasant orange glow, which was why sunrise was her favorite part of the day. She noticed something was wrong, though. There were guards on every street and few villagers out. She avoided their gazes and made her way to school. Iruka seemed tense that entire day and Sasuke was absent, and she could hear rumors that something had happened to his family. The next day Sasuke had returned, but he seemed strange and angry. Naru heard that his brother had killed his entire family, leaving only him alive. Ino and Sakura, who bickered constantly about the boy, left him alone that day. After school, however, he walked up to her.

" Your parents…are dead, correct?" Sasuke asked coldly.

" I don't know. Nobody does. They're just….gone." said Naru, trying be polite.

" What is it like…being so alone?" asked the dark haired boy.

" Hell." said Naru sadly. " You see everyone else with their parents and it hurts. You wake up alone and it hurts. You look in the mirror and it hurts."

" Hn." said the last Uchiha before waking away, cold as ever.

0000

Naru was now twelve and nearly a genin. So near to graduation she could practically smell it.

Unless that was Choji. She sniffed the air. No, definitely graduation.

She was standing in line with the other students, waiting to be called into the examination room by Iruka and Mizuki. She was nervous because she still had trouble with the replacement techniques and she couldn't make a clone that was decent, but she hoped her Disguise technique and other skills would be enough.

" Uzamaki Naru!" called Iruka. With a thumbs up from Ino, Naru entered the room.

" I think we can skip the disguise part." said Iruka, marking off the form. " You've gotten full points on that every time. Let's begin with detection."

" Mizuki is hidden in the ceiling." said Naruto, focusing her senses and detecting the mans heartbeat. Her eyes were sharp and her nose was almost as good as Kiba's, but her hearing was the best. The ninja dropped down. " Good." said Iruka, marking the paper again. " He had rice and a egg for breakfast." Mizuki nodded in agreement. " Now we need to test your taijutsu."

After several minutes of sparring she passed the hand to hand section. She was almost as fast as Mizuki already and almost as strong as the boys, so she earned a lot of points. She managed to perform the replacement technique seven out of ten times, the minimum needed to pass that test. Finally, she came to the part she had dreaded.

" And now, make a clone." said Iruka, hoping the girl had been successful in learning the technique in the last few days. Naru formed the jutsu, but the copy that appeared was discolored, immobile, and only vaguely like her. She looked at him nervously.

" I'm afraid I can't pass you, Naru." said Iruka painfully. " If you can't create a working clone you fail that section." Slumping in defeat, Naru walked from the room.

00000

She hadn't passed. All because of that stupid clone technique. Naru was seated on the top of the academy, watching the sun set over the Hokage's monument.

" I know your upset with Iruka for failing you," said a voice behind her. She turned and saw Mizuki walking that way, a unusually sympathetic look on his face. " But he care's for you a lot. He's just trying to keep you safe."

" I just…I really wanted to pass. I'm the only one who failed." said Naru, downtrodden.

" You got pretty close." said Mizuki, taking a seat. " You only needed a few more points. There is a way you could still pass, but it would be very hard."

" There is?" said Naru, blinking. " Did you come to tell me this?"

" I did." said Mizuki, smiling at her. " If you fail the test there is a extra credit assignment you can do. In the Hokage's office there is a scroll that he keeps locked in his desk for this occasion. It has a number of techniques on it that are some of Kohona's most difficult. If you can get in without being caught and learn one before anyone finds you, you pass. it's a simulation of entering a enemy base and obtaining documents. I'd suggest the ruined building east of town for a hiding place."

" Thank you, sensei!" said Naru, leaping to her feet and sprinting off. " Thank you so much!"

Had she turned she would had seen Mizuki smiling victoriously.

0000

" Naru! Naru!" said Iruka, running though the woods. A small, partially collapsed shack came into view and he spotted the girl relaxing against the wall. He scroll of forbidden techniques lay near her. " Naru!" he said, running over.

" Iruka-sensei! I did it!" said Naru, smiling sweetly.

" Why, Naru?" asked Iruka, catching his breath. The girls confession of guilt was strange.

" The extra credit assignment Mizuki told me about!" said Naru, standing up. She noticed Iruka's confusion and explained. " I went and got the technique scroll Mizuki told me about from the Hokage's office so I could make up the points I need to graduate. I didn't get caught and I learned a technique, so I can pass!"

" Naru, that is a scroll of forbidden jutsu you are not allowed to learn until you become a jounin!" said Iruka. " There is no extra credit! Everyone in the village is searching for you because that scroll is incredibly valuable!"

Naru was about to respond when Iruka suddenly twitched, moving faster than she had ever seen him move. He pushed her to the side as a dozen kunai embedded themselves into the wooden planks.

" Mizuki!" shouted Iruka, looking into the trees. Standing on a branch was Mizuki, wearing a evil smirk and holding a gigantic shuriken. " What are you doing?"

" Obtaining the scroll for my master and doing the village a favor." said Mizuki, hurling the shuriken at Naru. She was paralyzed with fear and unable to move, but a moment before it struck Iruka leapt in front of it, blocking it with his body.

" You saved me." said Naru, blinking. Iruka coughed, spitting up blood.

" That was a stupid move, Iruka, saving the girl by sacrificing yourself." said Mizuki, dropping from the trees. " Naru, do you want to know the real reason you aren't allowed to read that scroll?"

" Don't…listen to him." said Iruka, dropping to his knees. Naru stood transfixed.

" They are afraid that you might use it to break the seal on the demon contained in you. The demon fox that the Forth couldn't defeat and trapped within you." said Mizuki, walking closer. Naru looked down at her claws, understanding for the first time. " The Third ordered us to keep it a secret, but everyone knew. Even Iruka. And everyone hated you because of this. You're a monster, Naru."

" She is not." said Iruka, struggling as he pulled the large shuriken from his back. He was in massive pain and barely able to move. " Mizuki, you know her as well as I do and know she isn't a monster."

" Did you know, Naru, that Iruka volunteered to take the demon child into his class as a favor to the other teachers? He told them he was going to hold you back and not teach you anything dangerous. Anything that could make you a threat." said Mizuki, twisting Iruka's words. Naru looked at Iruka, betrayal flashing in her red eyes. In a blur she had grabbed the scroll and ran off.

" Naru!" cried Iruka as the girl ran, but she paid no heed. He began to call out again but was silenced by a kick from Mizuki.

" The little monster won't come back. She's going to run until she's tired, and then I will kill her and take the scroll." said Mizuki, drawing a kunai.

" She's not a monster." said Iruka, struggling unsuccessfully to stand. " She's a little girl that's been mistreated by the village for something she has no control over. She's a kind, good person, Mizuki. She makes sure to be careful with her claws so she doesn't hurt people, helps whenever she can, and treats people fairly. She's more human than either of us."

" You may be right," said Mizuki, raising his arm to strike, " but soon she'll be dead."

If Naru hadn't had her excellent hearing, she would have missed Iruka defending her, but thankfully, she heard every word of the kind teachers speech. Skidding to a halt, she turned and raced back, realizing that though he had once hated her, he hadn't for a long time. A moment before Mizuki's attack connected she delivered a flying kick to him, knocking him flying.

" Stay away from Iruka-sensei." said Naru, landing. " Or I will kill you."

" Ha!" said Mizuki, leaping to his feet. " I get to kill you earlier that I expected!"

Before he could charge Naru forced her hands together, focusing her chakra and blasting open the First Gate. The normally slow world became nearly still for her and she ran forwards as fast as she could manage, leaping in a kick. The force of the blow was amplified by her speed and Mizuki was sent into the air from the impact, but she landed and lunged again, delivering another strike that increased his velocity further. Hit after hit turned Mizuki into a human missile, and when her chakra reserves were finally tapped and the world sped back to its normal crawl, Mizuki was send hurtling into a tree, splintering the bark as he was embedded nearly a foot into the trunk. Naru stood, panting for air, as Iruka walked over.

" Naru…" Iruka said, trailing off.

" I found something called the Inner Eight Gates on that scroll and learned how to open the first one." said Naru tiredly. " I didn't think I could do the Lotus because I'm too small to grab and hold anyone, so I learned the Chrysanthemum instead. It said it was weaker but I still think it works really well."

" Naru, that is one of the most difficult techniques in the world!" said Iruka, amazed. " Did you read everything about it?"

" Well, not everything." said Naru, smiling nervously.

" Well, you should know that you should not use that unless you have to. It tires out your body and chakra because it removes the limits of how hard you can push your muscles and how much chakra you can use as once." explained Iruka. " It allows you use techniques like the Lotus and Chrysanthemum, which are powerful, but costly. The Chrysanthemum is weaker than the Lotus, but it doesn't hurt you as bad."

" I'm sorry I caused all this trouble, sensei." said Naru, looking to the ground shamefully.

" It's not your fault, Naru." said Iruka, putting a hand on the girls shoulder. " Mizuki tricked you. We'll just go back and explain what happened and everything will be okay. One thing first. Close you eyes."

Naru did, wondering what Iruka was planning. When he told her she could she opened them. Iruka was standing before her, his forehead protector missing. She realized that he had put it on her forehead.

" You proved yourself, Naru. I'll make sure you pass." said Iruka, smiling at her proudly. Naru couldn't help the tears that formed in her eyes and leapt forward, hugging him tightly.

" Naru…my back…" he rasped. Naru let go immediately. " Actually, let's go to the hospital first."

" Okay, sensei." said Naru, grabbing the scroll and helping her teacher towards the village.


	2. Chapter 2

" It looks like we are going to have three full teams after all." said the Third, looking over the updated report. Iruka, who was seated nearby, smiled.

It was the morning after Naru had stolen the scroll and the jounin were meeting for team assignments. Iruka was there to give recommendations and assessments of the students skills. Mizuki would have usually been helping him, but since he had been arrested and hospitalized, that was out of the question.

" I thought the Uzamaki girl failed." said Kakashi, not looking up from his book. " Are we rewarding her for causing all that trouble last night?"

" She was tricked." said Iruka defensively. " But she returned the scroll and has apologized for her actions."

" But why did she pass?" asked Kakashi, voicing Kurenai and Asuma's question.

" Because she was able to use a forbidden technique to beat Mizuki after we found out he was a traitor and tried to kill us." explained Iruka. " Unless I hallucinated it, he was still embedded in a tree when ANBU found him."

" A twelve year old girl beat a chunnin?" asked Kurenai, her red eyes lighting up with interest.

" Not only a chunnin, but the academy's taijutsu instructor. He's not Guy, but he could have made special jounin if he wanted." Iruka said, bragging about his favorite pupil. They discussed the others students briefly, Iruka giving his observations.

" I like the kid already. I'll take her." said Kurenai, looking over Naru's file.

" Give me the Uchiha and whatever's left." said Kakashi, not looking up from his romance novel.

" Well, if Kurenai takes Naru, Shino and Kiba might be good teammates." Iruka said, looking though the test results.

" The bug boy maybe, but I don't want to deal with a Inuzuka." said Kurenai. " I think I'd prefer the Haruno and Yamanaka."

" That means you would have three girls on your team, Kurenai." said the Third, looking at the jounin.

" Four." replied Kurenai, glaring back fiercely. " And what would be the problem with that?"

" Nothing, nothing." said the Hokage, nervously waving off the easily angered woman.

" The Haruno's a genjutsu type, which I can know better than anyone. I taught that at the academy for a few years." Kurenai explained, eyes threatening anyone to challenge her logic. " and I have worked with the Yamanaka and I know their abilities pretty well."

" Well then, it's settled." said Iruka, a drop of sweat rolling down the side of his face as he shut his notes. Behind the triumphant Kurenai, Asuma and Kakashi rolled their eyes.

000000

Naru tried to pay no attention to Kiba, but it was hard. He was checking her out again, and doing a bad job of hiding it. She sighed. She was developed well for a girl her age, but sometimes she thought that Hinata had the right idea with that jacket. Finally, Iruka walked in, distracting everyone and removing Kiba's eye from her posterior.

" Quiet down, everyone." said Iruka, sitting down at his desk. " I have the team assignments." Naru listened intently as he read down the list, finally coming to her group.

" Team eight will be Haruno Sakura, Uzamaki Naru, and Yamanaka Ino." Naru smiled, thankful that she hadn't been put in a group with the poorly-bathed Kiba or psychotic Sasuke. She saw surprised to hear Shino groan several rows back. The boy rarely made a sound, and a indication of displeasure was even rarer. Iruka read though the last few teams before everyone got up and moved over to their teammates.

" Hey Naru." said Sakura, sitting by her. She seemed disappointed, probably because she wasn't on Sasuke's team. Ino sat in the chair on the other side of Naru, also distraught. As far as things went her team wasn't bad. Both were her friends and both showered daily, making it easier to be near them. Kiba walked past, making her nearly gag.

" Isn't it weird?" asked Sakura. " They don't usually put a lot of girls on one team."

" I wonder why they did that." Naru said, trying to think of a good reason.

" Perhaps they tried to match our skills or something?" suggested Ino.

" Good guess, Ino." said a woman's voice. The three girls looked up and found a woman with a strange, bandage-like garment, long dark hair, and red eyes with strange pupils. Naru wondered for a moment if the woman's eyes were red because of a demon like hers. " I am Yuhi Kurenai, your new sensei. Follow me." The woman turned and promptly walked from the room. The three young kunochi quickly followed.

" Where are we going?" asked Ino impatiently.

" Somewhere quiet where we can introduce ourselves and begin today's lesson." replied Kurenai.

000000

Twenty minutes of silence later, they arrived in a small park mostly hidden in the trees alongside the lake. Kurenai led them onto the small beach, stopping by the water.

" So, what are we learning?" asked Naru, barely containing her excitement.

" Focus and patience." Kurenai said sternly. Naru gulped under the woman's forceful glare. " When we discuss something, we will always practice a chakra focusing technique. This will train your chakra control, help you build your stamina, and teach you to calm yourself." Kurenai turned and walked on the surface of the water, making the genin's jaws drop.

" How are you doing that?" asked a dumbfounded Naru.

" I focus my chakra into my feet and expel a steady stream from my feet." replied Kurenai. " For now we will stay in the shallows, but soon we will move to the deep water. If you wish to stay dry, you will need to learn the technique."

" But why are we doing this? Wouldn't it be easier to talk over there?" Sakura asked, pointing to the park.

" It would, but you would learn less. In battle, you will have to focus on many things at once." explained Kurenai. " Now, focus your chakra and walk out."

The three girls took deep breaths and walked onto the waters surface. Sakura stayed perfectly balanced on the top with little effort, but Ino and Naru wobbled on the water, falling in almost immediately.

" Damn it!" swore Naru as the cold water engulfed her feet.

" Naru, you will not swear during practice." Kurenai commanded. " You will walk out two more paces and continue."

Naru grumbled as she moved though the water until it came to her knees. She began to focus again as shakily began to rise.

" Now, introduce yourselves." said Kurenai.

" I'm Haruno Sakura." said the pink haired girl, a victorious smile on her face.

" Yamanaka Ino." said Ino, struggling but managing to hold on the surface of the water.

" Dammit!" shouted Naru as she collapsed into the water again, completely soaking herself.

" Naru, move two more steps out." commanded Kurenai repraisingly. Naru did, shivering and looking like she wished to continue swearing.

" I will not abide a foul mouth from any of you." said Kurenai as Naru floated back to the surface of the water. " A foul mouth is a sigh of a simple mind."

" Well, Naru's not exactly brainy." teased Ino.

" Shut up, Ino-pig." shot Naru back, rolling slightly to the side.

" Girls!" shouted Kurenai, stopping the discussion. The genin looked to her guiltily. " Now, as you noticed earlier, this team is all female."

" Yeah. I thought usually they tried to keep it mixed." said Sakura.

" That is the tradition." replied Kurenai, her distaste for the tradition obvious. " But every tradition is broken. I've always thought a female jounin could teach kunochi better. I'm a bit of a feminist."

The girl looked to each other, silently agreeing her final statement was unnecessary.

" Now, I focus on genjutsu techniques." said Kurenai, launching into her lesson. " I prefer to fool my enemies rather than duke it out with them. Brains will always beat brawn. I intend to teach you how to think as well as fight. We will spend as much time on taijutsu as we will on tactics, and I expect you to learn how to formulate plans quickly and effectively."

" FUCK!" yelled Naru as she fell into the water again.

" Naru…" said Kurenai, grabbing the bridge of her nose.

" I'm sorry, it's just really hard!" said Naru, head bobbing out of the water. " And I'm cold. I hate water."

" Naru, in addition to the water walking exercise, each time you swear, I'm going to make you run a lap around Kohona after practice." threatened Kurenai.

" Uh, she'll do that anyways." interrupted Sakura. " She loves to run."

" Yeah. Getting her to stay still is the problem." chimed in Ino with a laugh. Naru struggled to the surface again, standing up and trying to focus. " Iruka-sensei always had to fight with her about the swearing and fidgeting."

" Really?" said Kurenai, raising a eyebrow. " Than I think I have a better exercise for us at the moment. Do you see that island?" she said, pointing to a small rock outcropping with one tree in the center of the lake.

" Were going to run on the water to it."

" All right!" said Naru, taking off instantly. Sakura and Ino followed a moment later, shouting protests and calling Naru a cheater. Naru was a lot faster than the two girls, practically skipping across the water without a single wobble. Kurenai let the girl get halfway to the island before racing towards it at her full speed. Fast as the girl was, she wasn't a jounin and Kurenai passed her quickly, a spray of water following in her wake.

" Hey!" said Naru, running up. " How come you can move so fast!" She barely seemed like she had ran. The other two arrived shortly later, puffing for breath.

" Everyone take a seat." said Kurenai, pointing to a flat rock. Ino and Sakura happily plopped down. " Naru, I am a jounin, an extremely experienced ninja. You are impressively fast for your age, but I have years of practice on you."

" Oh." said Naru, sounding disappointed. This piqued Kurenai's curiosity.

" Did you think there was another reason?" she inquired.

" Well…" said Naru, looking unsure. " It's just that everyone moves so slowly…when you ran past me, I thought for a moment that you were like me."

Kurenai blinked, processing the information.

" Like you?" she asked.

" Faster." said Naru unconvincingly. She looked to Kurenai with her red eyes, and Kurenai understood.

" When you say everyone moves slowly, what do you mean?" asked Kurenai, skirting the issue while planning what she was going to say.

" Well, Iruka-sensei always said I had incredible reactions." said Naru. " I figured out a while ago that this is because I hear and see so much better. I heard someone talking about being hurt and seeing thinks in slow motion, and it sounding like how I see things."

" Really?" asked Sakura, surprised.

" I believe I have an answer for this." said Kurenai. " When you ran, was it hard to focus the chakra for the water walking technique?"

" Not really." replied Naru.

" That's because your chakra is in motion faster than ours." Kurenai said, stating the hypotheses she was forming. " When you stay still, it's hard to focus it because it wants to be moving. But while you move, you have a far easier time focusing it than most."

" Really?" said Naru, blinking in surprise.

" Yeah, it was a lot harder to focus chakra while running." agreed Ino.

" This is a unique advantage and disadvantage. Everyone has them." said Kurenai, trying to smile sweetly at the girl. " Sakura has innate chakra control it seems," she said, complimenting the pink haired girl, " but she doesn't possess any special powers. Ino can use special techniques only her family can use because of her bloodline."

" Bloodline?" asked Naru.

" Unique powers passed down though our family." said Ino boastfully.

" Like what?" asked Naru, sounding unconvinced.

" This." said Ino, holding her fingers together and peering though them. A moment later she slumped over and Naru felt herself suddenly go numb. On it's own accord her arm began to move. She tried to stop it but couldn't.

" The Mind Switch technique allows me to take over peoples bodies." Naru said for no reason. Suddenly Ino sat back up and she felt control of her body return.

" I think Iruka-sensei mentioned this when I first did the transformation technique." said Naru, thinking back.

" You are good at a lot of things, Naru." said Kurenai. " But we need to keep improving and practice things we aren't good at. Now, back to the water."

The girls groaned, realize that Kurenai was going to be a slave-driver.

00000

" My legs are completely numb." said Ino, voice straining. It had been nearly three hours since they had begun practicing the water walking technique, and aside from short breaks they had spent most of their time barely avoiding falling in.

" That happened to me a hour ago." whined Naru. She had struggled the most, and rapidly falling into the cold water hadn't helped.

" Gah!" said Sakura, her right foot sinking in. She forced it back to the surface but stumbled several steps, brushing past Naru.

" Eee!" said Naru, grabbing her nose and toppling into the water.

" What? I didn't hit you hard!" said Sakura crankily.

" Yeah, but you stink!" said a irate Naru as she climbed out of the water, wringing her tail dry.

" I do not stink!" shouted Sakura, losing her focus. She slid downwards under the water, sputtering as she came up.

" That solves that." said Naru, grinning. " You were covered with sweat before you fell in."

" It bothers you that much?" said Sakura, shivering as she stood up. The muscles of her legs aches horrendously from chakra use.

" Yeah." replied Naru.

" Didn't you have to sit by Kiba last year?" asked Ino, thinking back.

" Remember how I passed out twice?" said Naru, grimacing. Sakura and Ino chuckled despite their fatigue.

" All right girls, that's enough." said Kurenai, appearing near them. " After practicing for that long, it shouldn't be to hard to use the technique during practice."

" Finally!" shouted Naru, diving onto the sand by the beach. She lay back in the sand and relaxed, enjoying the warmth. Ino and Sakura joined her, plopping back tiredly.

" Who said we were resting?" said Kurenai. " We just stopped the chakra focusing exercise. Were now going to run two laps around the village. Naru, you get to do five because of your swearing."

" Yes, ma'am." said Naru, sitting up.

" Why are we doing this? I thought you said you were going to teach us strategy and stuff." said Ino, struggling on her acing feet.

" I will, once I have you used to my training regimen." said Kurenai. " I work harder than most jounin because I have to. Women are, unfortunately, physically weaker and slower then men, and you have to train hard to overcome that."

" Naru doesn't." said Sakura sarcastically. " She hits like the boys."

" Really?" asked Kurenai, raising her eyebrow. She looked around and found a large rock and walked to it, rolling up her sleeve. " Let's see how strong you are."

" Okay!" said Naru, weariness seemingly forgotten. She raced over and grabbed Kurenai's hand, and immediately the arm wrestling match begun. Naru pushed with all her might, managing to push Kurenai's hand back a bit.

" Wow, you are pretty strong." said Kurenai, sounding surprised. Naru smirked, nearly pinning Kurenai's hand to the ground. Suddenly, in one irritable push Kurenai forced Naru's hand back and pinned it, nearly flipping the girl. " But your not as strong as me yet. And remember, taijutsu is my weakest area." said Kurenai, standing up. The three girls looked to her in awe. " Physical strength isn't everything, though. These runs and training exercises make you stronger, but there are other tricks that can help. While men are stronger, women have far more flexibility. There are a number of stances that you can use to increase your leverage, allowing you to hit harder and lift things with greater ease. But for now, we focus on physical strength, alright?"

Feeling like they should salute or something, the girls began to follow as Kurenai lead them on the run.

00000

The sun was just beginning to set as Naru trotted up to where her team had ceased their run. Ino and Sakura sat, panting for breath, and Kurenai seemed winded.

" I'm done, sensei." said Naru, coming to a halt. Kurenai looked at the girl in surprise. Kurenai had the advantage in speed over short distances, but the girls endurance and recovery was like Guy and Lee's. The girl had lapped them while they completed their laps, waving happily.

" Good job, Naru." said Kurenai, forcing herself to regain her composure.

" I don't think…laps…is going to punish her." gasped Ino.

" She has a point." said Naru sheepishly. " I usually run more than this anyways."

" Where do you go?" Kurenai asked curiously.

" Around the town. Though the forest. I just run." said Naru, shrugging. " It's fun."

The rest of the conversation was cut off as the sound of someone running approached on the path. Coming into view was a tall, muscular man in a green jumpsuit with a bowl haircut and a skinny boy that was nearly identical to him in every way.

" Oh…great." sighed Kurenai as they approached.

" Hello Kurenai!" said the man, waving. When he and the boy came close they stopped, running in place.

" Are you and your youthful students taking a walk in the forest?"

Before Kurenai could answer, an awful retching sound came from behind. She turned and spotted Naru, leaned over and vomiting.

" I know…I am considered unusual…" said Guy, looking insulted. " But usually people do not react so impolitely."

" Are you okay, fox-chan?" said a concerned Lee, jogging over. Naru didn't reply, just heaving again.

" Get away!" said Sakura, rushing over and pushing Lee back. " How long have you been exercising?" she asked. Lee and Guy looked confused. " The smell bothers her."

" Oh!" said Guy, grabbing Lee and backing away.

" Are you okay?" said Ino, leaning over and helping Naru up.

" Yeah…sorry." apologized Naru. " I can block it out sometimes, but they kinda caught me off guard."

" Sorry, fox-chan!" called Lee. " We did not know!"

" It's okay…it's not like you knew." said Naru, smiling politely. Her eyes opened a moment later in surprise. " Wait, what did you call me?"

" Fox-chan!" Lee shouted back. " I don't know your name but I noticed you are dressed up like a fox!"

" Lee…" said Guy, grabbing his students shoulder and pulling him away. Kurenai the boy could be rather clueless." My apologies! Since we interrupted, we shall do a extra one-thousand pushups before dinner!"

" Guy, you don't have to…" Kurenai trailed off as the two ran off into the distance.

" He thought I was dressed as a fox?" said Naru blankly. She suddenly began to laugh, never having encountering someone who had made that mistake before. She wished more people would.

" That was Guy and Lee." said Kurenai with a sigh. " Guy is…possibly the most accomplished taijutsu master in the village, but he is rather eccentric. His student Lee has picked up a number of his personality traits in an attempt to emulate him."

" Why?" asked Ino, making it clear she thought little of the man. Sakura and Naru knew that was likely because of his unfashionable appearance.

" Lee would not be a ninja if not for Guy." explained Kurenai. " For a unknown reason, he is unable to draw chakra. He can use no ninjutsu or genjutsu, so it would usually be impossible for him to graduate. However, Guy took notice of his exceptional work ethic and began to train him extensively in taijutsu. Of all the genin in the village, Lee is the best hand-to-hand fighter."

" He can't use chakra at all?" said Naru, thinking back to the strange boy.

" No." confirmed Kurenai. " I remember he was often ridiculed for this during his days at the academy."

" Why?" asked Naru.

" Well…" began Kurenai, preparing to explain why people teases each other. Then, the oddity of what she was about to do caught her. " Because…" She couldn't seem to form the words as Naru looked at her, innocent curiosity on her face. She had a foul mouth, but she didn't seem to understand cruelty at all. She remembered what Iruka had said about her being a exceedingly kind person.

" If you don't know you don't need to say." said Naru, smiling sweetly. Kurenai thanked her mentally.

" That's it for today. Meet me at the park where we practiced for training tomorrow." said Kurenai, vanishing in a whirl of leaves.

" See you tomorrow. I need to help mom make dinner." said Ino, walking off stiffly and waving.

" I'm going to go home and take a bath for two hours." said Sakura, stretching tiredly.

" Thanks." said Naru. Sakura glared at her for a moment, them shrugged and walked off. Naru ran towards the Hokage's monument, hoping she could get to the top in time. She liked to watch the sunset from up there, and it would ruin a mostly good day if she missed it.

00000

The next morning Naru arrived at the small park before dawn. She'd woken up early and felt unusually restless, so she had went and bought herself some food for breakfast and had planned on eating it while she waited for the others.

She found a small grassy knoll that overlooked the lake and watched the sun begin to rise over the lake, crunching on an apple. Suddenly, the pleasant quiet of the secluded locality was broken by a loud splashing.

" We are nearly there, Guy-sensei!" said Lee, swimming into view.

" Only two more laps, Lee!" replied Guy. " If we do not complete them without stopping, we shall do five thousand backflips with double weights!"

Naru stood up and walked out into the water, strolling alongside them.

" Oh, hi fox-chan!" said Lee, managing to wave while doing the crawl stroke.

" What are you doing?" asked Naru.

" We begin our training regimen every morning by swimming fifty laps around the lake!" replied Lee. Suddenly, they became aware of a thrashing sound behind them. " Guy-sensei!" cried Lee, turning and rushing to Guy's aid. The jounin had gotten leg entangled in the reeds that were growing in the water, but after a moment he was free.

" We have failed, Lee!" said Guy, looking distraught. " I was careless and caused the failure!"

" It is not your fault, Guy-sensei!" said Lee, patting the jounin on the back. As they were only wearing swimming trunks, Naru was able to see that they were both very well muscled.

" We will do the five thousand backflips with weights, and if we cannot do that, we will add thirty laps to every one of our jogging exercises!" declared Guy.

" Why?" asked Naru, cocking her head to the side in confusion.

" Training." said Lee, smiling. " If we are not capable of completing our exercises, we must train harder so we can improve."

" Oh." said Naru, seeing the logic but still not understanding. " Hey, I want to apologize for yesterday. It's just…you two smelled really bad."

" It was our fault, fox-chan." said Lee, not accepting her apology. " I regret putting you in discomfort."

" Hey!!" called Sakura from over on the beach, interrupting them.

" Sorry. I'll see you, Lee." said Naru, saying goodbye and walking towards her friend.

" Fox-chan, since we will likely encounter each other again, what is you name?" asked Lee.

" Well…" said Naru, looking back. " I kinda like fox-chan." She smiled as she walked away, leaving the inquisitive boys question unanswered.


	3. Chapter 3

" I have never been this sore in my life." whined Ino as she walked up. Naru and Sakura has been talking after Lee and Guy swam away.

" I know." said Sakura. " How are we supposed to do that again today?"

" What are you two talking about?" asked Naru, not feeling tired at all.

" We still feel tired from yesterday." explained Sakura. " We can't run like you do and still feel fine."

" Oh." said Naru. Finding out something like this was always embarrassing for her.

" Girls!" came Kurenai's commanding voice. " Out on the water!" Groaning the young kunochi walked out to where Kurenai was on the lake. Naru found it a lot easier to balance than the day before, but it was still tricky when not moving.

" We are going to go through the extended training routine again today." said Kurenai. " The quicker we get you able to do the exercises, the sooner you will be able to start learning new techniques and begin on tactics. We are also going to spar before lunch as part of our exercises."

" Yes…ma'am." said Sakura, struggling on the surface of the water. While she had good chakra control, the aching of her legs from yesterday made it difficult to focus. Ino was having a similar problem.

" We'll start with a hour and a half on the water." said Kurenai, closing her eyes and relaxing. " You may find it helps to meditate."

The girls all bit their lip in anticipation of the exertion.

00000

" Good. Again!" yelled Kurenai.

Ino and Sakura charged Naru from two different directions, making it difficult for the her to dodge. Sakura leapt in a flying kick, but Naru hastily blocked it. Ino swung, nearly landing a punch while Naru dealt with Sakura, but Naru heard it coming and twisted out of the way. Sakura landed, swinging a sweep kick as she did so. Naru was forced to leap into the air, where a kick from Ino knocked her back. She recovered, landing nimbly on her feet in a crouched position, ready to counterattack.

" Stop!" commanded Kurenai. The girls obeyed instantly, coming to a halt and panting for air. They had been fighting continuously for nearly a hour and even Naru was tired.

" Excellent job, all of you." said Kurenai, walking over. " Form-wise I can't fault anyone. Ino and Sakura, good job coordinating against Naru." Naru, being the fastest and strongest of the three by far, had to fight the other two on her own.

" Thank you, sensei." replied Sakura, standing up. The sun was scorching, making them all feel overheated.

" Let's break for lunch." said Kurenai.

" All right! See ya!" said Naru, waving and beginning to run off.

" Where are you going?" asked Kurenai before she got far.

" To get lunch." said Naru, explaining the obvious.

" Ah, I forgot to mention. I'll buy lunch for our team whenever we practice." said Kurenai with a smile.

" Really?" said Naru, looking excited.

" Really." replied Kurenai. " Where would you three like to go?"

" Somewhere close." said Ino. Sakura nodded in agreement.

" Well…there's that ramen place near here." said Kurenai, thinking about where they were.

" Hey, Iruka-sensei took me there once when I forgot to bring lunch." said Naru. " It was really good."

" Then it's settled." said Kurenai, checking her wallet. " All right, we're going to jog there."

A moment later, Naru was gone.

00000

" This stuff is delicious!" said Naru between bites. Kurenai, Ino, and Sakura were watching in disgust and fascination, their own ramen forgotten. The small girl was on her fifth double-sized portion already.

" Why, thank you!" said the girl who was serving the ramen, smiling sweetly.

" I mean really delicious! I usually just went home when I was hungry, but I'm going to start coming here every day!" said the girl, putting down her empty bowl.

" Naru, that's probably enough." said Kurenai, stopping her before she ordered another. " When's the last time you ate?"

" Just before practice." said Naru blankly. Kurenai blinked. The girl had an incredible appetite.

" It's Sasuke-kun!" squealed Ino, pointing down the street. Sakura turned, searching for the boy. The Uchiha, a tall, thin man with white hair, Kiba, and Shino were with him, walking down the street. They looked like they had been training hard, so Naru began to focus away from the scent in advance.

" Sasuke-kun!" said Sakura, waving to the dark haired boy. He looked up emotionlessly. " How is your training going?"

" Well." he replied as he walked past. Naru had to hold her breath. Kiba hadn't showered in a week.

" So, Kakashi." said Kurenai, striking up a conversation with the other jounin. The team, much to Naru's displeasure, came to a halt by them. " How are then working?"

" Well." replied Kakashi, his one visible eye looking bored.

" So, you actually passed them? Did they get the bells?" asked Kurenai, looking over his genin.

" No, but they figured out to act as a team eventually." replied Kakashi. " How are yours?"

" Their doing well. I'm still getting them used to my training schedule." said Kurenai, looking over her genin. She noticed Naru had started to turn blue and was not breathing. " Oh, yeah. Kiba, could you take a few steps back?" The Inuzuka complied and Naru let out a sigh, able to breath again. " Kakashi, if you could, would you encourage your students to bathe more.?"

Sasuke looked somewhat insulted by the statement, Kiba and Akamaru looked afraid, and Shino stood stoically.

" Sure." said Kakashi, turning. " We need to be heading off now."

" Bye." said Kurenai politely.

" Why'd you do that?" asked Naru when the other team was out of earshot.

" Do what?" asked Kurenai.

" Ask them to bathe more." said Naru.

" Well, it obvious that strong smells bother you more than other people," explained Kurenai, " and even I could smell the Inuzuka boy."

" I don't know how Kiba expects to get a date smelling like Akamaru." said Ino. " I'd go out with Choji first."

" That's not much of a comparison." said Sakura, nudging Ino with her shoulder. " You like Choji."

" I do not!" said Ino, blushing at the statement.

" It looks like my love for Sasuke-kun is truer." said Sakura smugly, turning to her lunch. Ino looked like she was about ready to hit her when she caught Kurenai's glare. She shrunk, still wanting to retaliate.

" Thanks anyways." said Naru, changing the subject. " Most of the time it's not a problem but sometimes I just get surprised."

" I know of a technique that might be helpful." Kurenai said thoughtfully. " One method I learned of dealing with pain is reducing the flow of chakra near the injury. It might help with your nose, it might not. It's worth trying, anyways."

" I will." said Naru, eyeing Kurenai's unfinished noodles. " Are you going to finish that?" asked the girl, pointing to the bowl. Rolling her eyes, Kurenai handed to her lunch to Naru, who set into it voraciously.

" So what was with Shino?" asked Sakura. " He was acting really weird."

" He was?" asked Naru between bites.

" You didn't notice?" asked Kurenai.

" Notice what?" said Ino, also having not noticed the bug user.

" Well," said Kurenai with a smirk, " He watched Naru pretty closely."

" He did?" said Naru, nearly dropping her chopsticks.

" How could you see, Kurenai-sensei?" asked Ino. " He had on sunglasses."

" Practice." explained Kurenai. " You can tell the direction someone is looking from their body language, how they are tensed, and how they act. He gave you an Sakura cursory glances, but he turned his head like a normal person. When he looked at Naru, his shoulders tensed and he moved his head so he was able to look with his peripheral vision. I think he might have a crush on a certain someone."

" Really?" said Naru, blinking and blushing. She wished Kurenai hadn't said that out loud, but she wouldn't have noticed by her self.

" Ewwww." said Sakura and Ino, looking to each other with disgusted faces. " Bug boy?" said Sakura, shuddering. " I'd rather deal with Kiba." said Ino, shuddering.

" There just bugs." said Naru, not understanding the revulsion. " Theres noting weird about them." Naru looked over to Kurenai for confirmation, but Kurenai also had a somewhat uneasy look on her face.

" Well…bugs…are not…" Kurenai began unconvincingly, failing to save her tough persona. " Oh, come on, Naru. He's got bugs crawling in his skin. That's disgusting to anyone." she said with a sigh.

" You don't like bugs either, sensei?" said Naru teasingly.

" No." said Kurenai gruffly. Naru giggled. For a moment, Kurenai had seemed as girly as Ino and Sakura.

00000

After they had finished practice and her students had left, Kurenai headed for the restaurant she and the other jounin occasionally met at for drinks. They had planned on meeting and discussing their students, happy for once to have something to interrupt Guy with. The other jounin were already there when she arrived.

" Hey, Guy, has that Neji kid ever mentioned Hinata before?" asked Asuma, taking a sip as Kurenai took a seat.

" Neji has mentioned her name before, I believe." said Guy, entering his thoughtful pose. " But he has never done more than that."

" Well, I hate to say it, but Hinata is seriously screwed up, and one of the problems is Neji." said Asuma.

" She's terrified of Neji, her father, her sister, and just about everyone else in her clan. She's been told she's useless so many times she can't accept anything else, and she won't stop apologizing for things that weren't her fault."

" She's that bad?" asked Kurenai concernedly.

" And that's just so far." said Asuma with a sigh. " Truthfully, I think she'd be better off quitting, but that won't happen. She's main branch. And I also don't want to prove her family right about her. Choji also has self esteem problems, and Shikamaru has no motivation at all. My teams a real group of losers."

Kurenai suddenly felt a little guilty. Sakura and Ino were nothing special, but they had a lot of potential. Naru, who was quickly becoming her favorite student, was something special to begin with, and the demon foxes gifts she was truly exceptional. The girl would doubtlessly make jounin someday, if not Hokage.

" Not to complain, mind you." said Asuma, lighting a new cigarette. " I bet the Uchiha kids a handful and Uzamaki has some serious emotional baggage as well."

" Not that I've seen." said Kurenai, taking a gulp of sake. " Actually, other than some appearance issues, she's probably the best of my students. Sakura and Ino are quite a bit like I was at that age."

" I would like to apologize again for yesterday." said Guy, speaking up. " We should have realized that after fourteen hours of training…"

" No, no." said Kurenai, waving Guy off before he assigned himself more pushups. " I didn't even know Naru's nose was that good. She's pass off for a Inuzuka with that thing."

" I was going to ask about her." said Kakashi. " But I think my questions was just answered. She was bothered by Kiba, right?" Kurenai nodded. " That could be a problem for her."

" Yeah. Tomorrow we're going to try shutting the chakra flow off to her nose, but the girl doesn't have great chakra control. She's more they type that ran around on the playground every day instead of doing her chakra exercises." replied Kurenai. " She's faster and stronger than any kid her age as the right to be and her endurance is as good as Lee's."

" Really?" said Guy, looking surprised.

" Yeah, but she lacks in other areas." Kurenai explained. " She's more of a brawler type as far as attacks and doesn't have good focus. It also is hard to practice when your fingers have blades on them. She spends a lot of time making sure she doesn't hurt you with them when you spar."

" That would be tricky." said Kakashi. There was a short pause.

" Kurenai, one other thing." said Guy. " Lee is…unaware of Naru's…situation."

" Really?" asked Kurenai is surprise. It seemed surprising that anyone wouldn't.

" He thinks she is dressing like a fox, and I didn't think I could correct him without revealing the secret." said Guy. Everyone nodded, agreeing it was a good move on his part as Guy was famous for his trouble keeping secrets. " In fact," he said with a chuckle. " He wondered if it was some sort of training you were having her do and if it would benefit him to attempt it."

" That's quite the boy wonder you have there." said Asuma sarcastically. Guy smiled, not catching Asuma's intent and thinking it was a compliment towards his apprentice.

0000

For the next few days they continues the hard training until the girls were nearly used to it. They were on the water, doing their typical chakra control exercise for warmup.

" From now on we are going to do a more normal routine." said Kurenai at the beginning of practice.

" Yes!" cheered Ino.

" In the mornings we will meet like this and discuss missions, things we need to improve on, and water else we need to. If we don't have a mission we will spar until noon when we break for lunch." explained Kurenai.

" At the ramen stand, right?" interrupted Naru hopefully.

" Not always." said Kurenai, disappointing the girl. " After lunch we will begin practicing techniques and tactics, and before the evening we will do two laps around the village and another chakra focusing exercise."

" That's still pretty tough." said Sakura, looking unsure of the schedule.

" Three laps." said Kurenai quickly. " And were not having ramen for lunch." A drop of sweat rolled down Sakura's face as she looked at the other two girls who were staring at her angrily.

After they finished the chakra control exercise, they set to sparing. Kurenai wanted a few more days of training from them before they did a mission.

In taijutsu, Naru was easily the superior of the other two girls. She had to fight them both at once just to be fair, and she was still able to win most of the time. However, when it came to chakra, they were both far better than her. Sakura had less chakra but near perfect control, while Ino had the most chakra of the three of them and average control. Naru was able to match them in the transformation technique, but once they began to practice replacements she quickly fell behind, and when Kurenai began to explain genjutsu, Naru didn't have much hope.

" Sakura, explain genjutsu for us." said Kurenai. While Naru was her favorite, she had realized that Sakura had the groups brains. She tried to be careful not to focus on any one more than the others.

" Genjutsu is where you create a illusion to distract your opponent." explained Sakura. Naru listened intently for once, not wanting to be beaten again. " This is done by anchoring your chakra to theirs and disrupting their senses. You can hypnotize them into thinking their friends are enemies, make them see things that aren't real, and conceal your presence."

" Very good." said Kurenai, quite impressed. It sounded like the girl had been reading from the textbook while she spoke. " First, we will learn to detect and break genjutsu. How is this done?"

" A genjutsu technique requires the user to form the illusion they desire." said Sakura quickly. " The more chakra they have the greater the scope of the genjutsu, and the more imaginative and focused they are, the more detailed it will be. Since nobody has unlimited chakra or imagination, there will always be flaws."

" Very good." said Kurenai, beginning to form hand seals. " I am a very high level genjutsu user, so I could trap you in a technique that you could not detect at your present level. However, for this exercise it will be a weaker one I developed when I was younger."

" Wait, there are different techniques?" asked Naru. " I thought you just had to think of something."

" When you develop a genjutsu technique, you develop the basis for the illusion to extend from. My best, the Demonic Tree Bind, creates a illusion of a tree restraining you, making your mind believe you are trapped and paralyzing you. From there I can further the illusion if necessary. For example, I could make you think your allies were dead and you were the last alive."

" But if it's just a illusion, won't you still be able to move?" asked Ino.

" No." said Sakura, letting Kurenai focus. " Unless you knew she was using genjutsu, if suddenly a tree killed your teammates, you would think she had used some ninjutsu to do that. And, since the chakra is anchored to yours, it makes your body still react to what the technique does, even if your mind knows better."

" But why not just create a ninjutsu technique that actually does stuff?" asked Naru.

" Well, ninjutsu have a lot more limits then genjutsu does, since genjutsu can be anything you imagine." said Sakura. " And, genjutsu requires far less chakra. What is easier, making someone think you dropped a mountain on them or dropping a mountain on someone?"

" Good point." said Naru, finally understanding. " So sensei," she said, turning to Kurenai. " What does this technique…."

Naru never finished her sentence, her words trailing off. Sakura and Ino turned to see what was wrong and stood transfixed. Kurenai was laying on the ground motionless, a kunai embedded in her forehead.

" Wait, it's the illusion!" said Naru as the realization struck her.

" Oh!" said Sakura with a laugh. " I was scared for a moment. Hey, sensei, that was mean." said Sakura, leaning over and shaking Kurenai slightly. She pulled her hand back in shock. " She's cold!"

" Wait, I thought genjutsu just made you see things wrong!" exclaimed Ino.

" What's that smell?" asked Naru, sniffing. A moment later Guy, Lee, a boy that resembled Hinata, and a girl in a pink shirt with bunned hair came running up.

" Hello, fox-chan!" said Lee, waving. He skidded to a halt a moment later, looking at where Kurenai lay.

" What happened?" asked Guy, rushing over and pushing the girls back. As the man had been sweating from his exercise, Naru had to cover her nose.

" It's just a genjutsu Kurenai-sensei is showing us." said Sakura.

" A genjutsu would not effect us, since we were not here when she used the technique!" said Guy forcefully, standing up and looking around. His students all took up position as well.

" Wait…Kurenai-sensei is really dead?" said Naru, blinking. " It just happened!"

" Whoever did this is probably nearby! Follow me!" said Guy, racing off into the trees. The girls ran after him, coming through the bushed he had passed through and finding Kurenai waiting, smiling apologetically.

" Huh?" said Naru, nearly tripping on a rock as she stopped.

" I just wanted to demonstrate how dangerous a weak genjutsu can be." said Kurenai. " I'm sorry if I scared you."

" But…Guy…" said Ino, looking around.

" Part of the technique. I call it the False Victory technique. You use it on a opponent and show them their attack succeeding, then lead them into an attack." said Kurenai, motioning to the water. The girls walked out onto the lake to practice the chakra focusing technique while they talked.

" Wow…how's that a weak genjutsu?" said Sakura, looking to Kurenai with new respect. " You even made me think the body was cold."

" That is because I am a very good genjutsu user." explained Kurenai. " I am able to do more with a weaker technique than usual. The seals that you use to form the technique effect how much chakra it draws and how the illusion, in that case my fake death, begins. As far as breaking that technique, it would have been easy."

" How do you do that?" asked Naru impatiently.

" You focus on your chakra and stop its motion completely, making the genjutsu fall from you, or you expel chakra equal to that used in the technique, shattering it." replied Kurenai. " It is preferable but harder to stop your chakra flow since you need more control to do it. The chakra expulsion technique, however, uses up a portion of your reserve, weakening you. Both have advantages. I want you to focus on the first technique on our next try." said Kurenai, walking onto the beach.

" Why are you going over there?" asked Naru.

" Most techniques we can practice out there, but if you shut off your chakra, you fall into the water." said Kurenai. Naru smiled nervously, slightly embarrassed. The genin walked onto the beach and prepared themselves.

" This time I'll just make it so you can't see anything." said Kurenai. Naru's vision suddenly went dark as the technique took hold. Naru let out a deep breath and felt out for her chakra, forcing it to slow. There was a sudden jolt and suddenly things came back into view. Besides her Sakura was looking around quickly, having broken the technique as well. Then, another jolt and everything slowed down. Sakura was now looking around at a normal speed.

" Woah." said Naru, blinking. For a moment things hadn't seemed so slow. _Wait…Kurenai-sensei said something about my chakra moving really fast…if I stop it…_Naru focused again and stopped her chakra. The world sped up as she did.

" Heeeyyy seeennnssseeeiii! Yyyoourrr nnnooottt ssslllooowww annnyyy mmmooorrre!" said Naru in extremely long, drawn out sounds.

" Why are you talking like that?" asked Sakura. Naru sighed, allowing her chakra to return to normal. Things slowed down to their regular crawl.

" I was talking like I normally do." said Naru. " When I stopped my chakra, I don't think I was moving as fast as always."

" You have to talk like that?" asked Kurenai. She hadn't realized how completely the speed difference effected the girl.

" It's what you guys sound like to me." said Naru.

_She lives in a completely different world._ realized Kurenai. _To her, sitting still for five minutes takes forever, which is why her attention span is so short. That would be horrible for a little kid._ It also explained how Naru was able to be so precise at high speeds, because it was normal speed for her.

" Well, Naru, I figure you have a new chakra control technique to work on then." said Kurenai. " If you slow your chakra when we train, you won't move so much faster than Sakura and Ino."

" Why would I do that?" asked Naru.

" Well, without your enhances speed you will need to work hard to move as quickly as usual. Then, when you are no longer restricting your chakra, you will move even faster than before. Plus, things won't take as long." explained Kurenai. " This conversation would have been much faster."

" Oh!" said Naru, getting the idea. " Iilll ddooo ttthhhaaa….illl doo thhaaa…I'll do thaat ffrom nnow on." said Naru, struggling to speak quicker.

" Of course, you can't always be doing it." said Kurenai. " If you did, you couldn't use any techniques."

Naru blinked, trying to make sense of what Kurenai had just said. " Cooo…could yoou say that aagain?"

Kurenai sighed. Nothing was easy with this girl.

00000

They had continued to practice with shutting off their chakra flow against harder and harder techniques. Ino and Naru did averagely, but Sakura was able to break each one with ease.

When Kurenai showed the girls the hand seals and had them attempt the False Victory technique on their own, Sakura was successful after only a few tries, though the genjutsu was rather unrealistic. It was her first time, however, so that was to be expected. Ino also proved to be quite adept at genjutsu, successfully using the technique a few minutes later. _Her families bloodline manipulates minds,_ thought Kurenai. _so she probably has a natural predispositon for genjutsu._

Naru, however, seemed completely unable to form the technique.

" Why isn't this working?" she said, frustrated. " Why can I never use techniques other than transformation?"

" Well, possibly because the transformation technique simply restructures your chakra, not uses it." said Kurenai, again realizing the disadvantage that Naru had. " Since your chakra moves so fast, it's hard to contain it for use in the technique."

" Great." said Naru, looking downcast. " So all I have is taijutsu, transformation, and that gate thing."

" Gate?" said Kurenai, confused.

" The technique I learned so Iruka-sensei would pass me." said Naru. " It was the Inner Gate or something."

" You can open a inner gate?" said Kurenai in alarm.

" Only the first, but yeah." said Naru. A moment later she realized Kurenai would be alarmed like Iruka because the Inner Gate's tired out your body. " I didn't learn the Lotus, though. Just the Chrysanthemum." said Naru, trying to put her teacher at ease.

" Naru, even though it is weaker than the Lotus, opening the Inner Gate is incredibly dangerous." said Kurenai sternly. The girl didn't seem to appreciate the danger of the technique and, considering what she had contained within her, it might not be wise to be removing chakra barriers.

" I know." said Naru, looking to her shoes guiltily. " Iruka-sensei said not to do it unless there was nothing else to do."

" What's this gate stuff?" interrupted Ino.

" The Inner Gate's are a series of barriers within your body that regulate chakra usage." explained Kurenai, not surprised the other girls didn't know about it. " It is a incredibly dangerous and powerful thing to open one of them. The First Gate removes your bodies restrictions making it possible to use your muscles at their limit. You move as fast and are as strong as you can possibly be, but there is a reason there is limits. Your muscles tear from the strain and your bones crack from impact. The First Gate allows you to use several extremely high speed attacks not normally possible. The Lotus is the most powerful one of these, but it leaves nothing left afterwards. Your body is completely exhausted. The Chrysanthemum is less powerful and does not completely drain you, but still inflicts considerable strain."

" Wow." said Sakura, looking very impressed at Naru's ability.

" Most ninja don't even bother to try opening them, because it is not only dangerous but rare to be able to." continued Kurenai. " The ability to open the First Gate is something most people could do, but each one after that you are less and less likely to be able to open and is more and more difficult."

" There are more?" said Ino. " If the first one is so good, why open the rest?"

" There are eight gates in total. Each successive one grants greater and greater power. If you were to open the eighth, for a short time, you would have unlimited power, possessing power far greater than even the Hokage. Unfortunately, with each successive gate opened, the damage you take is greater. Opening the eighth, in fact, kills you." Kurenai let her words sink in for a moment.

" I don't think I'll open more than the first." said Naru, looking intimidated.

" That's a good idea." said Kurenai, smiling to her. " There are other techniques to learn, anyways."

" I think I wouldn't go any farther than the first either." said Ino. " But I think I'd like to learn in. The techniques sound interesting."

" Because they're named after flowers?" asked Sakura dryly. Ino glared at her.

" Well, I would have to say no for now." said Kurenai. " I don't want you using such a technique at your present age. But, sometime in the future you may try if I think you are up to it."

" All right!" said Ino, somewhat disappointed but hopeful.

00000

After practice broke, Naru made her way into the village, slowing her chakra. It was strange to be surrounded by so many people moving so quickly. They all avoided her, as usual, but they looked surprised at her amazed expression. Naru made her way to the ramen stand and ordered a bowl, which arrived, to her perspective, nearly instantly. Usually she had to sit and wait, smelling the food for ages, until it made it's way to her.

_This is the best day of my life._ she thought, smiling and breaking the chopsticks.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day when they spared, Naru got beaten around quite soundly. She didn't have practice fighting people at the same speed and it put her at a distinct disadvantage. She still had her supernatural strength, but since she was smaller she didn't have the reach to use it effectively. After several rough hours, Kurenai stopped their training, to Naru's great relief.

" Today we are going to do our first mission." said Kurenai.

" All right!" cheered Naru. She had been waiting for a mission from the moment she graduated.

" What's it going to be, sensei?" asked Ino, sharing Naru's enthusiasm. The three girls looked up at their teacher hopefully.

" As new genin, you will be taking a D-Rank job." explained Kurenai, sorry to be damping their spirits. " These carry no risk and you will not have to leave the village. They are really chores that the village needs done."

" Wait, chores?" asked Naru, confused. " I thought we were going to do ninja things."

" Not yet." said Kurenai. " These are simple things that you can earn some money for and practice teamwork with."

" Like….?" said Sakura expectantly.

" Well…painting a fence is what I did on my first mission as a genin." said Kurenai, thinking back.

" What?" exclaimed the girls in unison, disbelief etched on their faces.

" But…were ninja now!" whined Naru. " Shouldn't we…do something real?"

" No." Kurenai said sharply, indicating there was to be no more complaining. " You may have graduated but you still lack the skills to take on a serious mission. Once you have reached a level I think is acceptable, and only then, we will take harder missions."

Sighing the girls followed, hoping that their mission wasn't too pathetic. It was a quiet trip to the Hokage's tower, a combination of their fear of Kurenai's ire and dashed spirits. They entered the Hokage's office, Kurenai walking in front and the three of them walking behind.

" Reporting for a mission." said Kurenai in a professional tone.

" Oh, just in time." said the Hokage. " I only have one left. The cat's gotten loose again."

" You…not serious." said Kurenai pleadingly. " Your making us catch the cat? There isn't anything else?" Her genin looked at her, tempted to remind her of her recent speech to them and curious about what would be so bad about catching a cat.

" No, it doesn't look like it." said the Hokage, checking the list of missions. " Had you been here five minutes ago we would have had a flower garden that needed weeding." Ino sighed, as that mission would had been perfect for her.

" Fine." said Kurenai, slumping in defeat. " We'll have it back soon. Come on, girls."

" So, what is it? I heard something about a cat." Naru said, racing to Kurenai's side as they left the room.

" We have to catch this fat brown cat for this fat old woman." Kurenai said disgustedly. " The cat gets loose about every other day. It's a joke. There isn't a mission we could do that's more of a waste of time."

" But it's just a cat." said Ino as they walked out of the tower onto the street. " How hard could it be?"

" First, do you see it?" asked Kurenai, standing up straight again.

" Well, no." said a embarrassed Ino.

" The cat's somewhere in the village. A single cat. The only thing we can use to tell it apart is it has a red collar with a solid gold bell on it. We have to check almost every single cat to see which has the right bell. And after years of constantly being chased by ninja, the real one has become incredibly good at staying hidden and escaping pursuit." Kurenai sighed, explaining the difficulty of the job.

" So were going to have to grab and get scratched by every cat in the village?" asked Sakura, looking apprehensive about the mission.

" Yep." said Kurenai, turning at walking down the street.

" Hey, where are you going?" asked Ino.

" You can handle this on your own." Kurenai called back without looking. A few moments later she was gone.

" Great." said Sakura with a sigh. " Where do we start?"

" If I knew what it smelled like I could find it easy." said Naru, her nose twitching.

" You can do that?" asked Ino, eyes wide in surprise.

" Yeah." said Naru, beginning to twist her tail embarrassedly. " I can usually smell people before I see them."

" And you can tell them apart?" asked Sakura, sharing Ino's interest.

" Yeah." said Naru shakily. " Everyone smells a little different."

" What's Sasuke-kun smell like?" Sakura asked, her mind returning to her obsession.

" I bet he smells good, doesn't he?" asked Ino.

" No." said Naru quietly. The other two girls stared at her in shock. " He smells like death."

" Huh?" asked Sakura, head cocked in confusion.

" You know when something dies, it starts to stink?" Naru said, hoping they knew the smell. The girls nodded. " It's not really strong around him, but he just always smells like that. It's this evil, awful scent. I don't like being near him."

" Your making that up." said Ino, sounding scared. Naru nodded her head no. " Is he sick or something?" asked Ino, searching her memory for anything that would support her idea.

" Before Sasuke's family was killed I met a few of them. They helped police the city, and people were always calling the guard on me then." Naru explained. " They all smelled like that too."

" I don't think I could smell that." said Sakura, sounding determined. " I don't think it would bother me. Plus, he smells better than Kiba, right?"

" Kiba just smells gross. Sasuke smells evil." Naru said gravely.

" Take that back!" Ino yelled angrily. " There's no way Sasuke-kun is evil!"

" That's just what he smells like!" said Naru, backing away clutching her tail tightly.

" Ino, stop it." said Sakura, grabbing her friends arm. " We asked. She just told us."

" I know…" Ino said, voice sad. " I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have said that about Sasuke-kun."

" Uh, just a question." Sakura said, changing the topic away from Sasuke. " What do we smell like?"

" Ino smells like flowers and dirt." said Naru.

" Well, my family does own a flower shop." said Ino, shrugging. " What's Sakura like?"

" I…don't want to say." said Naru, twisting her tail tightly. She suddenly let out a cry of pain and pulled her hand back, having gripped hard enough to draw blood with her claws.

" Are you all right?" asked Sakura, rushing over.

" I'm fine. I'm fine. It's just these stupid claws." said Naru, looking at the blood covered points of her fingers. " I hate them almost as much as my nose."

" You don't like being able to smell all that?" asked Sakura, sounding surprised. " But that's so useful! You can track people by scent?"

" Sakura, you forgot to wash your right armpit last night." said Naru, wincing. Sakura looked stunned while Ino laughed. " Ino, you ate fried rice with chicken for dinner last night, and had a chocolate bar for dessert. There's a trash can in an alley near here full of fish that have been rotting for two days. The Hokage smokes heavily and everywhere he goes you can smell ash. Kurenai sensei…she's been with a man that smells like he's the Hokage's son."

The two girls stood stunned at Naru's wealth of information. The small blonde girl began to cry.

" I don't what to know that." she said with a deep sob. " I shouldn't know that. I know all these things about people that I shouldn't and it's embarrassing to try and talk to them when you know it all. I can hear peoples hearts beating and know if they need to see a doctor. The Hokage, he's old. Nothing smells right or sounds right, and I think he's going to die really soon. I don't want to know that, because he's the first person who was ever nice to me and I don't want him to die."

" I didn't know." said Sakura apologetically. " I never really thought about how bad having those claws and the tail and everything would be."

" Actually, I like the tail." said Naru with a laugh. " Let's start looking for the cat. I don't want us to get too far behind."

" Naru…" began Sakura.

" It's okay." said Naru as she wiped away a quickly drying tear. " I shouldn't have complained about all that. It's my fault."

" No its not." said Sakura forcefully. " It's our fault because we kept pressing you. We won't do that any more."

" Yeah. I promise." said Ino, smiling to Naru. Suddenly, she moved her head to the side, staring behind them and blinking. " Uh…look." said Ino, pointing. Naru and Ino looked and saw a large brown cat with a red collar and a gold bell strutting across the street. It saw them and froze. A moment later, the chase began.

000000

A hour later they had returned the cat to it's owner. Kurenai had sent them out on their jog, claiming she had an errand and couldn't join. The girls went on their run without her, Naru still suppressing her chakra so she moved at human speed. Even without her chakra, however, Naru was faster and had more endurance than the other girls, so they had to struggle to keep pace. After a while they encountered Lee and Guy on their run.

" Hello, fox-chan!" waved Lee as he and Guy ran to the side, keeping his distance from the smell sensitive girl.

" Hi Lee!" said Naru waving. She wanted to thank him for his forethought but thought it would be rude. " How's the training?"

" It goes well, fox-chan! We are on our ninty fifth lap! Five more without stopping or…." Lee trailed off as he jogged into the distance.

" Man, those two are freaks." said Ino, looking back.

" Well, yeah, but so is everyone we know." said Naru. " Sakura and you are the only two normal people in our class."

" Really?" asked Ino, sounding flattered. She was distracted at didn't see a root and tripped, landing face first in mud.

" Well, not so much at the moment." said Naru, leaning over Ino. Ino glared as she pulled her head out of the soft earth, spitting out a leaf.

00000

The next morning was rather awkward for the three girls. Ino and Sakura had made sure to shower more thoroughly the night before, but they were still rather self conscious. Naru sensed this and felt embarrassed, making the other two feel worse.

And then Kurenai arrived.

The scent of the Hokage's son and sake was unmistakable. Naru hated knowing these things and tried not to react, but she must have blushed because Ino and Sakura somehow read her and blushed as well.

" Are you three all right?" asked Kurenai, looking over her students. They were all red faced and she wondered if they were sick.

" W-were fine, sensei." said Sakura, smiling awkwardly.

" Good. Today we are going to do some sparing with another team." said Kurenai. " They should be here right about …now." The girls turned and saw Choji, Shikamaru, and Hinata coming towards them, led by a man Naru knew was the one that Kurenai was seeing.

" Hey." said Asuma, lighting a cigarette as they approached. " So, what's the plan?"

" I thought we should have them practice against each other one-on-one for a while, then doing some group sparring." said Kurenai.

" You heard her." said Asuma, motioning to his students.

" We have to fight girls?" whined Shikamaru as he walked over. " Troublesome."

" Your right about that." said Sakura with a smirk. " I'm going to …" Her words trailed off suddenly and she stood still.

" Sakura?" asked Naru, looking over at her friend with concern. She noticed the black line that was connecting Shikamaru and the pink haired kunochi. " What are you doing?"

" Winning." said Shikamaru, looking up at the clouds. As he did so, Sakura mimicked his movements. " I didn't feel like fighting at hand to hand so I used my Shadow Possession."

" Well, let her go." said Ino threateningly.

" Shikamaru…you should…" Hinata began to speak up, then drew back into her shell, staring at the ground and tapping her fingers together.

" Shikamaru, stop." said Choji, munching on some chips. With a sigh Shikamaru's shadow pulled away.

" You!" said Sakura once she had been freed.

" This is going to be troublesome." said Shikamaru, facing the angry girl in time for her fist to connect with his face. He fell over a short distance away motionless.

" You knocked him out?" Ino asked in awe.

" No." said Choji as he finished the chips. " He's just looking at the clouds."

" He'd better not get up." said Sakura, cracking her knuckles.

Though Shikamaru didn't join in, they began to take turns sparing. Choji was a interesting opponent, because he was too heavy for Ino or Sakura to move with their hits, forcing them to spend most of their time retreating, unable to create a opening. Hinata was fast and had a lot of skill, but she didn't seem to have any drive behind her attacks.

When it was Naru's turn to fight Hinata, she quickly became overpowered by the scent of tears that girl always had about her. She'd always worried about the quite girl because of this, but as she found the girl, trouncing her with ease even at reduced speed, she began to feel guilty. She had never told anyone about what Hinata smelled like because, as Sakura and Ino had demonstrated, it was better to keep her abilities to herself, but seeing Hinata knocked to the ground over and over made her decide to break her usual rule. When her turn was over, she excused herself and went to where Kurenai and Asuma were watching.

" Sensei?" said Naru quietly.

" Yes?" replied Kurenai, inviting Naru to speak.

" It's about Hinata." said Naru, her tail flicking reflexively into her hands.

" What about her?" asked Asuma.

" Something's…I'm just worried about her. She seems like she's been crying." said Naru, deciding it was best not to bring her abilities into the conversation. " Do you know if she's okay?"

" I don't think I should discuss it, Naru." said Asuma. " But I do know about it. Don't worry."

Naru rejoined the practice, unconvinced.

00000

The evening air was cool as Naru raced across the rooftops of Kohona, making her way to the Hyuuga manor. Despite herself, she was curios about Hinata, and if she could find out what was going on to make the girl so unhappy she could tell Kurenai. She landed on the roof of the manor, years of skill traveling quietly making her beyond silent. She crept quietly to the top and peered over, looking into the courtyard.

In the yard was a man and a girl a few years younger than her training. She sniffed the air, catching their scent. They smelled like Hinata so they were probably her close family. Creeping along the roof out of sight, she made her way into a window and began to creep along the dimly lit corridors, looking for any sign of Hinata. The people in the manor didn't sense her as she made her way around, finally catching Hinata's smell near door. She crept up to it and began to slide is open so she could look through.

" What are you doing?" said a voice behind her, making her jump. It was rare for her to be caught without detecting the other person. She turned and found the boy she recognized as a member of Guy's team standing there.

" I'm…I'm…" Naru began, fumbling with the words. At lightning speed the boy jabbed forward with two fingers, striking her in the right arm. There was a burst of pain as he did, unlike any she had ever experienced, and she fell slowly into unconsciousness.

She awoke in a cold room. She stretched and became aware of a metal chain attached to her foot. She opened her eyes, looking around. She was in a featureless cell, chained to the wall. Sudenly, the door opened and the man she had seen training at the boy that had knocked her out walked in.

" You are finally awake." said the man disdainfully. " You will explain why you were in our manor near my daughters room, demon."

" I was looking for her." said Naru, sitting up.

" Why?" said the man, voice dripping with barely contained hatred.

" I was worried about her." said Naru, quailing under the mans gaze. " My team trained with hers today…"

Before she finished he cut her off. " My daughter is a failure, which is disgrace enough. And now you tell me that she has been associating with slime such as you? If you had been truly concerned about her, you would had stayed away. Come." he said to the boy, walking from the cell and shutting the door.

" Hey! Hey!" Naru yelled, scrambling to the end of the chain. " Let me go!" she shouted, but there was no answer. She sat against the wall, shivering. " Bastard." she said under her breath. She listened in, trying to see if she could hear anyone, but she was unable to. There was only the scent of dust down here, leaving her to he conclusion that she was locked somewhere secure and far away from anyone.

" Good job." she told herself sarcastically, holding her tail to her chest for warmth.

Even with her chakra slowed, it seemed like an eternity until the man returned.

"So tell me truthfully, demon, what did you come for?" he asked, taking a seat.

" I-I t-told you." said Naru, stuttering from the cold. " I-I c-came…"

" Lies!" shouted the man, cutting her off. " This is not the first time a thief or kidnapper has entered our manor, nor is it the first time we have put someone down here. It's very cold here, as you may have noticed, demon. You will not last long. The truth."

" I told you." said Naru forcefully. The man stood up and walked over to her.

" Stand." he commanded. Shakily, Naru complied. Before she could react he jabbed forward like the boy had done, striking her between the eyes.

"Ehaaag!" she howled, her head knocking into the wall. The pain of the blow was as bad as the last one. She opened her eyes, the world swimming before coming into view fuzzily.

" Interesting." said the man cruely, turning and walking to his seat. " I did not expect that sealing chakra point would change your form."

" What?" asked Naru weakly, holding her head in her hands to deal with the pain.

" Your horrid eyes." said the man with a sneer. " They look human, for the moment."

Naru blinked, removing her head from her hands. " They…look human?"

" It must be terrifying…" the man began.

" What do they look like?" Naru asked, tossing the situation aside. The man seemed surprised at the natural curiosity in her voice.

" Human." said the man.

" What color? What do they look like? Are they brown? Green? Please!" she said dropping to her knees and begging. " Tell me, please."

" Attempting to make me feel pity for you?" said the man with a laugh. " It won't work."

" Please." Naru repeated.

" If you tell me why you were really here, I will tell you." said the man, a cruel smile on his face.

"Uh…I was here to steal….I mean…." Naru fumbled with the words, unprepared for the situation. She didn't know what to say to placate her captor. " What do you want to hear?" she asked with a sigh.

" You really came to see my idiot daughter." said the man, standing up slowly. " At least I now know you are not in league with my enemies."

" You believe me then? Will you tell me about my eyes?" Naru said hopefully.

" No. You did not provide me with anything useful, so I see no reason to reward you." said the man, opening the door.

" Please!" shouted Naru before he shut her in. " I'll do anything! I'll leave the village if you want or stop being a ninja! Just tell me!"

The man stopped just before closing the door, apparently tempted by her suggestion.

" There is one thing I would accept." said the man. " But I would not tell you until after you had done it. However, as a monster, it will be a task you will enjoy."

" Anything." said Naru breathlessly, not daring to claim she was not a monster.

" Kill Hinata." said her father in a detached voice.

" Your…daughter?" Naru asked, blinking. " Why would you want her dead?"

" She is a failure and a disgrace to me, as I mentioned. Should she be slain, my younger daughter could take the role as my heir. It is the only price I will accept." said the man, hatred etched into every syllable. He looked back through the door to where Naru sat in silence.

" Your what's making her sad." said Naru. The man's face began to contort in rage. " Why do you hate her? She's your daughter!"

" What could you, demon, understand?" said the man through gritted teeth, walking towards her menacingly.

" But…she's your daughter." said Naru, looking up at the man in confusion. She felt oddly unafraid of him. " I thought…" said Naru, deciding to play the part of a demon to placate the man. " I thought humans valued the lives of their children beyond anything."

" We…do." said the man as if he had been struck. " But if one is a disgrace…"

" You'd be willing to set me on her then?" said Naru, holding up a claw and looking at it as if inspecting a weapon. " I'll have to kill her quick so she doesn't use that technique you used on me. I suppose the throat would be easiest. Is she still asleep?"

" She is." said Hinata's father, his tone faltering.

" Who would find her?" asked Naru, trying to sound mildly entertained. The man was taken aback. " I suppose you would be the first to see so you can confirm it. Could you handle that? I want to know about my eyes as soon as possible."

" What is this fascination with your eyes?" asked the man, changing the subject hastily.

" I want to know what I'd look like human." Naru said truthfully. " I hate my eyes."

" You seem more fond of your other…characteristics." said the man, eyeing Naru's claws.

" I hate all of them but the tail. I can smell to much, hear too much, and everyone is scared of me." said Naru, finding it easier to tell her captor than her friends. " If I could, I'd get rid of them in a minute. I guess their like your daughter. Something I have I don't want."

Naru couldn't help herself and smiled. The man was so floored by her final comment that he simply stood there blinking his eyes.

" I won't kill your daughter." said Naru, sitting back. " I was just making a point."

To Naru's surprise, the man suddenly stood and unlocked the chain.

" You will leave and never mention this to anyone." he said before adding, " Your eyes are blue."

00000

_Blue._ thought Naru, touching her brow. She was sitting on top of the Hokage's monument and looking over the village as the sun came up. Her vision had returned to normal, as had, she guessed, her eyes. She's only had a short chance to see them reflected in a puddle before they changed, but they had been beautiful. She had cried with joy when she had seen them.

She didn't want to be a demon anymore, and she was going to find a way to change it.


	5. Chapter 5

Naru fell to her feet, gasping, as the transformation technique failed. She had been trying for hours while she waited for the others to arrive at practice to hold the transformation technique, seeing if she could use it to take on a more human look permanently.

_What good is being so incredible at the technique if its so weak?_ she thought, standing up. The transformation technique's design was for a temporary change. Holding it longer than a half hour was difficult, and while it didn't consume any chakra it required massive focus to keep in effect, something she didn't have.

Lying back with a sigh, Naru stilled her chakra. At the very least, she had learned to hold her chakra still with ease, which made everything more bearable. She closed her eyes and tuned in her other senses, the woody park becoming alive. Birds sang and fluttered, bugs buzzed and crawled in the dirt, the win swayed the leaves gently…it was soothing. Out here she could only detect the hints of the townsfolk's scents, much to her relief. Her relaxation came to a end when her ears picked up Ino and Sakura heading her way, arguing as usual.

" Sakura, just think about it! Why would Sasuke-kun go out with you when you look like that?" Ino strutted into view, followed by fuming Sakura. " He's not blind, so he'll make the choice anyone with eyes would make and pick me."

" No he won't!" screeched Sakura. " Sasuke-kun isn't that shallow! He'll go for me because my love is truer, you chubby chaser!"

" Take it back!" said Ino, leaning so close to Sakura they nearly hit heads.

" Never!" Sakura yelled. The two girls stood there snarling.

" Enough about Sasuke already." said Naru, sitting up. There was a puff of smoke and Kurenai appeared nearby.

" I agree. This is getting old." Kurenai said, walking over to them. " You two need to solve this now."

" But we can't!" whined Ino. " We don't know which one Sasuke-kun prefers!"

" Can't Kurenai-sensei read him for you?" suggested Naru. Ino and Sakura blinked, the idea filtering through their minds.

" I'd be willing to do it right away if it shuts you up. And no whining." Kurenai said sternly.

" Lets go!" said Ino and Sakura, stars in their eyes.

00000

A short while later, Kurenai and her team arrived at the field where Sasuke and his teammates were waiting for their instructor. Naru smiled as she saw Shino tense. She was going to talk to him one of these days, but not today. She covered her nose in anticipation of Kiba and Akamaru, but they had bathed and were actually palatable. The plan was for them to walk by and draw his attention, but not to stay too long.

" Sasuke-kun!" said Sakura as they approached. The dark haired boy looked up emotionlessly.

" Ignore her, Sasuke-kun!" said Ino, stepping in front of Sakura. " It's me, your girlfriend!" The Uchiha looked on stonily.

" You two, quiet." said Kurenai, separating the girls and forcing them onward. Once they were far out of sight and earshot, the girls looked to Kurenai, quivering in anticipation.

" Which was it?" said Ino, voice tense yet hopeful.

" It was me, wasn't it?" asked Sakura.

" It…" Kurenai began before sighing. " Suffice to say it wasn't either of you."

" What?" said the girls in unison, their shock carved into their faces.

" It wasn't you two. He didn't…focus on you two." Kurenai said, cringing.

" But he looked right at us!" said Sakura.

" Wait, didn't Shino do something were he looked one way but watched out of the corner of his vision?" said Ino, catching on. If she was right, she was going to be sick.

" Yes. This tends to indicate interest." said Kurenai, moving in front of Naru to shield her from the others.

" You mean…" Sakura said, color draining from her face.

" Sasuke-kun likes…." Ino said as the girls hung their heads in defeat. " Naru?"

" Huh?" said Naru, confused.

" It appears that Shino isn't the only one with a crush on you, Naru." said Kurenai, giving the girl a sympathetic smile. " I also noticed Kiba looking at you."

" Your joking." said Naru, looking for any sign of a laugh on Kurenai's face. She couldn't find one. Naru shuddered. Kiba was just so…gross…and Sasuke…she couldn't even see her self kissing him. " I'm going to be sick." said Naru, her stomach churning at the thought of the dark haired boys smell.

" This is ridiculous." said Sakura, looking up. " Naru got Sasuke-kun and she didn't even want him!"

" Is he into tails or something?" asked Ino, shrugging in confusion. " No offense, Naru." she apologized quickly.

" None taken. I like my tail." said Naru.

" Who do you like, anyways?" asked Sakura. " You got Sasuke-kun, dog boy, bug boy, and spandex boy after you, so which is it? Or is it Shikamaru or something?"

" Spandex boy?" asked Kurenai, raising a eyebrow.

" Lee." Ino said flatly.

" Lee likes me too?" Naru exclaimed, taken aback.

" Afraid so." said Kurenai, patting Naru on the shoulder.

" So, who is it?" repeated Ino.

" Well," said Naru, twisting her tail and considering them all. " Sasuke is handsome, but he's got that smell…and Kiba's bad too… Shino's nice and he's tall…but so is Lee…I don't really know Lee or Shino, though…but definitely one of them."

" Which means we can still go after Sasuke-kun!" cheered Ino, throwing her hands into the air. " If Naru doesn't show her interest, he'll stop being in love with her!"

" Yeah!" said Sakura, sharing Ino's hope. Kurenai didn't have the heart to point out that that had never stopped them.

" If it helps, I could be mean to him." offered Naru.

" You'd do that?" said Ino, looking at Naru thankfully.

" This isn't the time…were already behind on training." interrupted Kurenai.

" Sensei, if you let her do it I'll do double training without complaining." said Ino, taking a military stance.

" I will as well." said Sakura, falling into place by her.

" Well, Naru, go get him." said Kurenai quickly. A offer that good was rare.

" Okay! I'll be back." said Naru, waving and racing off back towards Sasuke's team. She entered the field and found them still waiting for Kakashi.

" Hey Naru!" said Kiba, waving. Naru smiled, trying to hide her disgust, and weakly waved back.

" Uh, Sasuke?" said Naru, walking over to the evil scented boy. She began to grip her tail as her hair bristled. She hated being near him and that unnatural smell.

" Yes?" said Sasuke, a slight hint of nervousness in his voice.

" Could you stand up?" Naru asked. Sasuke quickly complied. Naru stood with only inches between them, psyching herself up for what came next.

" What thisooofffFFF!" Sasuke exhaled sharply as Naru punched him in the gut. He crumpled to his feet, gripping his stomach. Not waiting a moment, Naru raced off, leaving the bewildered boys.

" It's done!" said Naru when she found her group.

" What'd you do?" asked Sakura curiously.

" I punched him." said Naru, smiling with pride at her accomplishment.

" You did what?" Sakura said dangerously, eye twitching. Besides her Ino cracked her knuckles loudly.

" Well, it time for sparring." said Kurenai with a cute smile. " Naru, remember, don't use your chakra."

Naru turned to the two enraged girls and smiled nervously.

" You hold her, I'll pull off the tail." said Sakura in a dark voice, eyes full of malice. Ino nodded and lunged forward. Naru hugged her tail tight, hoping she survived.

000000

" What the hell was that?" said Sasuke as he recovered.

" I don't know." said Kiba, helping him up and looking in the direction Naru had went. " Did you say something to her? That's what gets me hit."

" Not a thing." Sasuke said, standing uneasily. Naru hit way harder than any other girl and his stomach still hurt.

" It is quiet odd." said Shino, hiding his smile behind the neck of his coat.

00000

The next week of training was intense. Sakura and Ino kept their promise and began to train far harder, doing extra exercises, practicing genjutsu with determination, and fighting far harder than before when they sparred. Naru's plan to find a way to look human was pushed aside for the moment as she scrambled to keep pace. With her chakra stilled it was harder to match them, though in the physical exercises she still outshone them. While the other two worked on genjutsu, she put in extra taijutsu and chakra building exercises, and she thought she saw growth in both areas.

The did two more missions, completing them with ease. Kurenai was impressed her students and decided that it was time they took a slightly more real job.

" Morning, sensei." said Naru as Kurenai walked up to practice.

" Morning." Kurenai replied before taking out the mission scroll she had obtained a hour before. The girls could plainly see it marked as C-Rank. " We have mission that will take us the entire day, so we won't be training."

" What is it, sensei?" asked Naru excitedly.

" We are going to go to a outpost a short distance from the village and pick up their status report." said Kurenai, unrolling the scroll and showing it to them. " This is a C-Rank mission and not a very hard one at that. The outpost is only a few hours away and deep within our territory, so the chances of anything dangerous happening are minuscule. However, it will be your first time out of the village and I expect you to be on full alert."

" Of course." said Sakura. " What are the reports about?" she inquired.

" Oh, nothing special. Supply lists, incident reports, that kind of thing. Still, we need to bring them back safely. Do you have your supply kits with you? You won't need any extra gear." Kurenai said as she rolled the scroll up. The girls nodded, all producing their weapons holsters, medical kits, and other supplies. " Good. Let's head to the north gate where we'll meet with the other team."

" Other team?" asked Ino. " Who?"

" Guy's team." said Kurenai, hiding her apprehension. " Their team is going to bring back a injured man by stretcher, and the Hokage suggested our teams travel together."

" I hope they keep up." said Naru, following Kurenai.

00000

" Ah, Kurenai, good to see you!" said Guy, waving as they approached. Kurenai nodded to the boisterous man.

" Hi!" said the girl in the pink shirt, waving. " Nice to meet you."

" This is Sakura, Ino, and Naru." said Kurenai, indicating her students in turn.

" Ah! I know your name now, fox-chan!" said Lee, smiling.

" Aww." said Naru, faking disappointment. " I kinda liked fox-chan."

" I shall still call you that then!" said Lee, giving Naru his thumbs up pose. Ino and Sakura gagged, but Naru giggled, finding his enthusiasm funny.

" You know Lee already." said Guy, looking to his favorite student proudly. " This is Tenten and Neji." Naru tried to avoided Neji's eyes, as he was glowering at her. " Shall we get underway?"

" Sure." said Kurenai curtly. A moment later the two teams rushed off though the forests, the jounin leading the way.

00000

" So, what's with the tail?" said Tenten as she came alongside Naru. They had been moving though the trees at a quick pace for a while, and according to the jounin were nearly there. " It's real, isn't it."

" Yeah." replied Naru, leaping from a branch. " Why do you ask?"

" Lee keeps going on about 'fox-chan'." said Tenten with a laugh. " I think he finds you cute."

" Apparently a lot of boys do." said Naru under her breath. Tenten, however, caught the remark.

" They're not the only ones." Tenten said the a smirk. It took a few moments for the comment to filter though Naru's head.

_Wait. That means….wait…I know the word…_ Naru thought, digging through her memory. She couldn't remember the term, but she knew there was something you called girls who liked girls. Her eyes sprung open as she realized what Tenten meant.

" Wait….you…." Naru said, face bright red. " I'm…not…" Tenten was laughing as Naru fumbled with the words.

" Don't worry. I was joking." said Tenten. Naru sighed in relief. She had had enough of finding out people had crushes on her lately. This was starting to get weird.

00000

The outpost was a building built into a exceptionally large tree. The sentries escorted them, watching Naru closely. Kurenai and Guy, however, were greeted quite warmly.

" Ah, good to see you." said the base's commander once they were inside. " We have the…"

Naru didn't listen to the rest of what he said, instead focusing on her nose. She could smell chemicals, blood, and the stench of death. Unless there had been a serious battle, which was not evident, none of those should have been present. Then, barely on the edge of her hearing she heard a pained scream. She tensed despite her self, looking at their escort carefully. Other than the commander they were like blank slates and she couldn't tell anything besides what she could see.

" The injured man is in the medical room near here and the documents are on the second floor. I trust you can find the medical facilities on your own," said the commander to Guy, who nodded and lead his team down the hallway. " So I will take you to the archive to get the reports."

" Uh, excuse me." said Naru, hatching her plan. " Could I use your restroom? It was a kinda long trip here." She glanced to Kurenai, meeting her gaze, and motioned with her eyes. Kurenai, as expert at nonverbal communication, understood instantly.

" I'll take her." said Kurenai, putting her hand on Naru's shoulder. " I should visit them myself. Sakura and Ino, we'll join you in a moment." The two girls nodded, oblivious to what was going on, and followed the man to the archive. Kurenai and Naru went down the side hall and got out of sight.

" What is it?" whispered Kurenai. " It better be good."

" I can smell some things that aren't right. Blood and chemicals. And I heard someone scream." explained Naru in a hushed voice.

" There shouldn't be anything like that here." replied Kurenai, furrowing her brows. " This is just a fallback position we keep occupied in case of attack. We need to tell Guy."

" How?" asked Naru.

" I'll make a clone and disguise it as you and head upstairs. I don't want Ino and Sakura alone." explained Kurenai. " Sneak around and find Guy and tell him what's going on, then make your way upstairs."

" Right." said Naru, nodding. Kurenai performed the clone jutsu and a copy appeared, turning into Naru a moment later. Kurenai and the clone went down the hall, turning and going for the stairs. Naru let her chakra speed back up to normal, sighing as the world slowed. She crept to the end of the hall, where she double checked to see if anyone was watching before slipping out and following Guy's teams scent.

Finding Guy and the others took mere moments, but Naru still had time to marvel at her increased speed. The world was as slow as normal, but she was quicker and more agile from her training. Guy's team was in a small hospital room with several beds, one containing a sleeping man with a cast. There were two guards standing near him, watching carefully. Of everyone, only Neji detected her arrival.

" Shh." she said as she crept over. " I need to get Guy over here quietly." Neji nodded.

" Guy-sensei?" said Neji, calling to the nearby jounin. Guy, who was helping Lee and Tenten set up the stretcher, turned and looked to Neji. " Could we speak in the hall?"

" Of course." said Guy, surprised that Neji would ask such a thing. He usually didn't talk to the rest of the team if it was not necessary. Lee looked up as his beloved teacher left the room, noticing a small golden tail jutting from behind a bed.

" Fox-chan?" Lee called loudly. Naru froze. The two guards looked to each other quickly, then drew kunai.

" Lee! Look out!" yelled Tenten, dodging the guards attack. Lee, thanks to her warning, caught the guards arm and threw him into a wall. Tenten and Neji leapt on the last guard, knocking him out quickly.

" What is this?" said Guy, confused. Naru exited her hiding place.

" Kurenai sent me to warn you. I smelled a bunch of suspicious stuff and she got worried something was going on." explained Naru quickly.

" I see." said Guy, looking to the two guards. " It seems her concern was justified. What did you…smell?"

" Blood and chemicals." said Naru.

" We will go find her. It is safer to stick together." said Guy, motioning for them to follow. Tenten drew a scroll and summoned several kunai as they walked into the hall, Neji activated his Byakugan, and Lee began to unwrap the end of his arm bandages. The walked cautiously to the entrance, where they found Kurenai, Ino, and Sakura waiting with several beaten guards.

" What took you?" asked Kurenai impatiently. " It looks like we have some sort of rogue cell here. They have some sort of underground labs. We fought the commander and the guards from outside."

" You beat these guys already?" asked Naru, looking around.

" Three genjutsu users can do damage pretty quickly." said Sakura, smiling evilly. " We made them attack each other."

" Where is the entrance to the labs?" asked Guy, looking around for a door.

" Don't know. I only was able to get a little information out of these traitors." said Kurenai, kicking a downed ninja.

" It's over here." said Naru, walking to a wall section. The smells were coming from behind it. " I don't see how to get in."

" Move aside." said Guy, walking over. Naru did and Guy punched the wall, sending out a cloud of splinters and debris and revealing stairs.

" Guy, don't you thing we should get out students out of here first?" said Kurenai, stopping Guy from walking downwards.

" My apprentices are able to handle any combat." said Guy confidently. " Yours, as they are newer…"

" I'm going to take them a short distance away and send for backup." said Kurenai. " We'll meet up soon. Come on, girls."

" But sensei!" Sakura began to protest, but Kurenai silenced her with one look. As Guy and his team went down the stairs, Kurenai led her teams out into the woods, where Ino, Sakura, and Naru hid. Kurenai began to scout around, looking for the other guards. The girls kept silent while they waited until Neji came out, motioning to Kurenai and her team to enter.

" We have accounted for everyone." Neji said in his formal tone as they walked up. " As well as two medic-nin who were performing the experiments. Guy has requested Naru come to the labs and search for anything hidden I could not detect." It was obvious that Neji was insulted that Guy trusted Naru over him. " He suggested, Kurenai-sensei, that you make the decision. It is a rough sight downstairs."

" Can you handle it?" Kurenai asked Naru, giving her a look of encouragement.

"Sure." said Naru. " It can't be too bad. I've been in hospitals before."

" I want to come too." said Ino. Sakura nodded, indicating her desire as well.

" Fine." said Kurenai with a sigh. " But we've been warned."

They followed Neji down the dark passage. Naru's eyes quickly adjusted, but the others lacked her vision and made their way down the stairs carefully. At the bottom was a light chamber that had seen a recent fight. There were several glass tanks full of opaque liquids, medical beds sheets thrown over then, all containing bloodstains, and many wires which led from the tanks and beds to strange, sinister looking machines. Guy, Tenten, and Lee were trying up the last of the subdued ninja as they arrived. They seemed rather disturbed to Naru.

" Kurenai, thank you for lending me your student." said Guy as he walked over. " Can you search for anything the youthful Neji might have missed?"

" Okay." said Naru, taking a breath and attuning her senses. Blood and strange, unnatural oils and compounds filled the air, the machines hummed, Sakura and Ino's hearts beat quickly….she didn't notice anything unusual until there was a faint groan from one of the liquid filled tanks.

" There's people in these!" Naru said with alarm, pointing to the glass containers.

" I saw them as well." said Neji. " They, like each of the cadavers on the tables, are long dead."

" But I heard a groan from this one." said Naru, walking over.

" Naru, stay back." said Kurenai, pulling the girl back by the shoulder. " Experiments like these are used to enhance people. Whoever is in there is likely dangerous and unpredictable."

" It's odd to say that to her." came a voice. Everyone turned to the source. One of the medic-nin had came to and had been watching them. " Considering that she's the…"

" Quiet." said Kurenai, putting a kunai to the mans throat. " If you finish that sentence, I can kill you."

" Right." said the medic-nin, trying to lean away from the blade.

" What were you doing here?" asked Guy, looking around.

" Research." said the medic, a strange glint entering his eye. " We were given the formula for a steroid that could drastically increase human strength and speed. If we were able to complete it for our benefactor, we had been promised riches."

" Who is this benefactor?" asked Guy, staring down at the man.

" I can't tell you. The benefactor saw to that." said the medic-nin, choosing his words carefully. His eyes fell upon Lee and lit up. " Oh, is it really…experiment one twenty seven. How did you let such a failure become a ninja?"

" What?" asked Kurenai, confused.

" For…someone, we did experiments about fourteen years ago as well. I recognize that boys eyes. He was our worst result during our tests of a similar chemical. It weakened the chakra gates in his body so drastically it made chakra use impossible. There was interest in a follow-up test to see if the gates were easier to open, but we never got the chance." said the medic, smiling evilly.

" That's why I cannot use chakra?" asked Lee incredulously. " I was experimented on?"

" I bet that's rather crushing, isn't it." said the medic.

" Not really." said Lee, smiling broadly. " It means that the fault is not mine. I failed with chakra because something was done to me, not because I was a failure."

" That is excellent news, Lee!" said Guy, smacking his apprentice on the back.

" Yes, Guy-sensei!" said Lee, taking a stance. " It shall motivate me to train even harder!"

" New command: Smash the tank." said the medic-nin suddenly. Lee instantly leapt in a kick against the glass, shattering it. Kurenai dodged away from the oozing liquid and shards which flooded out. " New command: Save me!" shouted the ninja. Before Lee could be stopped he had grabbed the man and leapt away.

" Lee, what are you doing?" yelled Guy.

" He has to obey me." said the medic as Lee cut his bonds. " I built that into all my test subjects. Command: Kill them." Lee leapt forward towards Guy in a flying kick, but Guy blocked. Lee riposted backwards, landing and charging again. Neji raced to help his teacher while Tenten headed off the medic, who was trying to escape.

From the tank a large, muscular man with burnt looking red and black skin emerged, walking unsteadily towards Kurenai and her team.

" Girls, back away." ordered Kurenai. Naru, Sakura, and Ino moved away from their teacher, who faced the creature. She performed a genjutsu at lightning speed and vanished, but the creature reached forward and plucked her out of thin air by the throat. Kurenai gurgled as she struggled in vain to escape it's grasp.

" Sensei!" shouted Naru, leaping forward and speeding her chakra up to normal. With incredible force she delivered a kick to the creatures chest, but it barely moved. Kurenai, in her last struggle, pulled out a kunai and stabbed it's arm. It howled in pain before dropping her. Naru grabbed her before she touched the ground, moving her away as the creature pulled the dagger from its hand.

" It can...cough…see though genjutsu." said Kurenai, sitting up and massaging her throat. " I only have a few techniques that will work."

" I don't think I can hurt it." said Naru, taking a defensive stance in front of her team. " It didn't even feel the kick." Near them, Neji was sent backwards by a kick to the face from Lee. Despite Guy and Neji's superior skills, Lee was giving them a serious fight. Tenten had beaten the ninja and joined in the fight with Lee.

" The kick didn't hurt, but you could cut it." said Kurenai. " My blade worked, so your claws should."

" I don't…want to use them." said Naru, facing back.

" Use them." said Kurenai, standing up. " I just need a moment."

With a sigh, Naru raced towards the creature. To her surprise it wav able to move nearly as fast as her, blocking her first attack and nearly smashing her with a crushing punch which shattered the floor. However, it overextended with the attack and she latched on to it's arm, digging her claws in and rending its flesh. There was a sickening naturalness to Naru as she tore though its muscles, leaving the creatures left arm useless. It howled in pain, but she struck again, cutting though its upper leg. She rolled away after the attack to see what it would do. The creature stumbled for a moment, it's leg weak, but regained it's balance. To Naru's horror, the wounds she had inflicted began to quickly heal.

" Lee, snap out of it!" said Tenten as she leapt one of Lee's signature kicks. " New command: stop!" yelled Tenten hopefully. Lee suddenly came to a halt, unable to move. Guy, Neji and Tenten skidded to a halt, gasping for breath.

" I am sorry." Lee said in a strained voice, barely moving his mouth.

" New command: go back to normal." said Neji, walking over. Lee relaxed, fully in control. Before he could thank them, however, Naru pirouetted past them avoiding one of the medical beds the creature had thrown.

" It regenerates, sensei!" Naru called to Kurenai.

" I don't think my techniques will work!" Kurenai yelled, leaping over and joining Naru.

" Get it still and I can use mine!" called Ino, performing the Mind-Body Swap seals.

" Right!" called Naru, lungeing towards it's legs in a blur. She dodged it's counterattack and raked it's knees, cutting though bone with her claws with a went crunch. It fell to its feet, unable to move. Ino took the pose for her technique and slumped to the ground. The creature startled as her mind entered, taking control. It shuddered and roared loudly as Ino sat back up.

" It forced me out!" said Ino, standing weakly.

" We need to destroy it all at once!" Kurenai yelled to Guy.

" I have a idea!" Naru shouted, placing her palms together and focusing.

" Naru, don't! Kurenai cried, but it was too late. Naru forced the first Inner Gate open and accelerated, ramming into the creature and knocking it backwards in the first attack of the Chrysanthemum. With each of the innumerable successive hits she raked it with her claws, shredding it in midair. It splattered to the ground as she skidded to a halt, panting for breath and muscles aching.

" That was…!" Guy said in amazement. " She can open the Inner Gates?"

" Guy, not now!" said Kurenai, racing to the creatures remains. Guy followed quickly, inspecting the splattered chucks of meat and bone. The creature was dead, however, damaged beyond repair.

" Naru…" said Sakura, wide eyed with shock. Naru fell back, sitting down and resting.

" That was not the Lotus." said Lee in confusion, walking over to Naru. Neji, Tenten, Sakura, and Ino, however, kept their distance.

" It's another technique." explained Naru. " It's weaker but doesn't fully use your muscles."

" I see." said Lee. " Could you teach me that?"

" You have to be able to open these gate things first." said Naru as Lee extended a hand to help her up. She began to reach for it, but noticed her claws and arms were covered in blood. She began to withdraw her arm, but Lee grasped it, helping her to her feet.

" I already can." said Lee. " I only know the Lotus, however."

" Then I'll teach it to you when we get back." said Naru, smiling to Lee. She looked to the others, but noticed a horrified look on their faces. They were staring at her like the villagers usually did, with fear.

" With this new technique I might be able to defeat you, Neji!" said Lee, turning to his rival. He noticed Neji's horror-struck visage. " What is wrong?" he asked, walking over.

" Lee…she just…" Tenten was unable to talk, voice tainted with fear.

" She defeated the creature." said Lee, looking confused.

Naru began to try and rub the blood from her hands, but then the realization of what she had done caught up with her. Her stomach churned and she gagged, falling to her feet and vomiting in revulsion for her actions.

" Fox-chan!" said Lee, racing to the fallen girls side. " Is there a smell?"

" Lee, don't you know what she is? " said Neji, regaining himself.

" She's fox-chan." said Lee, looking to his rival.

" Lee, those claws, the tail…their real." said Tenten. Sakura and Ino walked over uneasily, taking places by Tenten and Neji.

" Their real?" Lee said in amazement. " That's quite useful, fox-chan. With claws, you have a weapon you can't lose."

" Lee…" said Naru, sitting up. " I'm…"

" She's the nine-tailed fox, sealed in human form." said Neji coldly, cutting Naru off. " She's a monster." Tenten, Sakura, and Ino looked to Naru in horror.

" Neji!" said Guy, appearing at his students side. " How did you know the secret?"

" It is obvious." said Neji. " Her malformations, her age…it was not difficult to realize. How could you let such a monster come with us?"

" I'm not a monster!" yelled Naru, tears in her eyes. " I'm…not…" She looked to the genin's eyes, seeing the hate in their eyes.

" You are." said Neji, looking down at her. A split second later Lee's fist impacted his face, knocking Neji flying. He hit a overturned bed and crumpled.

" Fox-chan is no monster." said Lee, eyes full of a anger that seemed foreign to his kindly face.

" Lee!" said Naru in alarm, leaping to her feet. Kurenai rushed to Neji's side as Guy grabbed Lee's shoulder.

" Lee, you saw what she did!" squeaked Sakura.

" I can do that as well." said Lee, turning to the pink-haired girl. " A more powerful form, in fact."

" But…she killed that thing!" said Ino, looking to Naru.

" It would have killed us." said Kurenai as she helped the shaky Neji to his feet. " She did what we needed to do."

" But she ripped it apart! It didn't even have a chance, and it beat you with ease!" said Sakura.

" Naru didn't use her claws until I forced her to." said Kurenai crossly. " If you remember, she hates them and doesn't want them. It's not like she enjoyed doing it either. And she is not the fox, Neji. It is merely sealed safely within her. The claws and other changes are a by-product of this, which helps keep her safe. She protects the seal and demon from anyone who would try and use it."

" But…" Sakura began, but Kurenai silenced her.

Everyone turned to Naru who stood, looking down at the ground while she twisted her tail, crying softly to herself. She looked even smaller then usual, making her look even more pitiful. Lee walked over to her side.

" Fox-chan…" he said quietly.

" I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I should have told you, but I liked just being fox-chan and having you think I was just wearing a costume for training." Naru said, avoiding Lee's eyes.

" You not any different to me, fox-chan!" said Lee, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at the boy who was smiling. " Though I know I won't be able to find training gear like yours now." It was obvious Lee was disappointed by this, which made Naru laugh.

" Neji, I can see you not seeing the truth." said Lee, turning to the other genin. " But Tenten, you have such good eyes and you two are her friends." Sakura and Ino felt a wave of guilt pass over them as Lee looked to them.

" It's not their fault." said Naru. " Everyone's like that."

" It's still not right." said Kurenai gruffly. " Damn fine student you have there, Guy."

" I'm sorry." said Tenten, seeming rather embarrased. " I…I'm sorry. It's just…you _really_ killed that thing. I couldn't even see you moving and it just seemed to disappear in a cloud of blood."

" Uh…Naru?" said Sakura She and Ino were looking like they felt incredibly guilty. " I…owe you a apology…and I'd really, really like to learn that technique."

" Why?" asked Naru.

" If Lee can open the gate, we probably can too." said Sakura, gesturing to Ino and herself. " And you'd be a lot less scary if we could do something like that too."

" Well." said Naru, taking a deep thinking pose. " I'd accept your apology…if you and Ino do something for me."

" What?" said Ino, eager to apologize.

" Pay for my ramen at lunch for the next week." said Naru, smiling deviously.

" Deal." said Kurenai, accepting for them.

00000

They waited at the base with he prisoners while Kurenai sent message to Kohona of what had happened. Naru was walking around on patrol when she saw Neji, trying to meditate. She flicked her tail to her hands and walked over nervously.

" I still see you for what you really are, demon." said Neji as she approached. " Do not expect a foolish apology from me."

" I'm not here for that." said Naru. " That…attack your clan uses that shuts off chakra…could you shut the chakra to my eyes?"

" Why?" asked Neji, a hint of curiosity in his voice.

" When that happened before…they became normal." explained Naru. " I want to see them again."

" I will not, demon." said Neji.

" Neji, just do it." said Tenten, walking up to them. " Don't be a bastard." A vein on Neji's temple bulged.

" Please leave." said Neji, retuning to his meditating.

" Thanks." said Naru as she and Tenten walked away.

" It's not a problem. I think I owed you it since I…" Tenten began, before Naru cut her off.

" I forgave you, remember?" said Naru, smiling friendlily.

" You did that really fast, though. I don't want you to be mad." said Tenten, looking ashamed.

" I forgave you really quickly?" asked Naru, looking at Tenten in confusion. " How long should I have taken?"

" I don't know." said Tenten, looking at Naru in surprise. " For what I did, usually longer."

" Well, I'm glad I did so quickly then. I'm pretty impatient." said Naru jokingly.

" Really?" said Tenten, smiling deviously. " Then I'll skip the flirting."

Before Naru realized what was happening, Tenten had kissed her. She stood in shock as Tenten began to laugh.

" Your eyes are like dinner plates!" said Tenten, holding her sides.

" Why the hell did you do that?" said Naru irately, snapping out of her stupor.

" Remember when I said I was joking earlier?" said Tenten. " I lied. Your pretty hot."

" Eh heh heh." said Naru, backing away. " I'm…not…into…."

" I know, I was just messing with you." said Tenten, smiling at walking away. Naru stood in bewilderment, marveling at the odd girl.

000000

Neji, who was only a short distance away and had been watching with his Byakugan, suddenly got a nosebleed.


	6. Chapter 6

Ino and Sakura tried not to meet Kurenai's gaze, but it was hard to avoid her stern eyes.

" I'm quite disappointed in you two." Kurenai said with a sigh. Shortly after they had returned to Kohona, Kurenai had separated Ino and Sakura from Naru to give them a lecture about their reactions.

" We're sorry." said Sakura, looking up at Kurenai pleadingly. " It was just kinda…"

" I know." said Kurenai with a sigh. " And to tell the truth, your reaction wasn't unfounded. Naru…as a demon's host, she gains a vast amount of power. What we've seen is only the beginning."

" Really?" said Ino, eyes wide with amazement.

" Really. Her increased speed, the claws, her senses…those are only the innate abilities she has. There will be others she learns that will be even more powerful. I don't like to use the word, but the best way to describe what her abilities will make her is a monster. She'll be stronger than me in only a few years, and by the time she's my age she'll be one of the most powerful kunochi in the world."

" How do you know?" said Sakura in awe.

" Demon hosts are rare, but there are others. There are other tailed beasts which have appeared from time to time like the fox, and the only way to stop them is to seal them within someone. It makes that person powerful and, usually, dangerous. Most of the most violent and dangerous ninja in history were demon hosts. However, Naru is a special case. The Fourth's seal is stronger than the usual techniques, and it gives her far more control. Mentally, she's normal, or as normal as she can be. You did notice her on the way back?" Sakura and Ino looked down as Kurenai reminded them. Naru had been twisting her tail constantly, meaning she was agitated.

" I don't think she forgave us yet." said Ino.

" Of course not." said Kurenai, looking up at the sky. " You could see it in her posture. But she wants to be liked, so she'll say she forgives you quickly."

" How come only Neji knew of this?" asked Sakura.

" Neji and the Hyuuga possess the Byakugan, which allows them to see chakra. It would have been obvious." said Kurenai gravely. " The situation with him is…complicated. Guy is explaining to Neji what his actions may have done."

" Huh?" said Ino, not understanding.

" Naru is one of Kohona's greatest secrets." said Kurenai, looking to her two students. " The penalty for speaking about the demon fox to anyone is death. Even is he is a 'bastard', as Tenten put it, I'd rather he not be killed, since he didn't know of the penalty."

" Death?" said Sakura, looking shocked. " But…why?"

" Most demon host's are raised to be weapons." explained Kurenai. " War's have been fought over them. Naru, in the wrong hands, could be a weapon of mass destruction like you cannot imagine. Kohona doesn't seek war, so we keep her hidden, for her and everyone's safety."

" She that powerful?" said Ino, finally fully comprehending.

" Yes." Kurenai said with a nod. " In fact, you two will have a hard time ever matching her. It can be done, though. In a choice between fighting a demon host with full control of its powers or a Kage level individual, choose the demon. Just because she has a advantage doesn't mean she is unstoppable."

" The Hokage is that strong?" said Sakura. The old man had never seemed very dangerous.

" If he wanted to, Sakura, he could kill me without blinking. His taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu abilities are off the charts, he's fought more battles than anyone else in the village, and he can summon extremely powerful creatures. Really, he's a lot scarier than Naru." Kurenai said, motioning for her students to stand.

" I'm really going to work to make it up to Naru." said Ino, checking to see how much money she had.

" A good idea." said Kurenai, smiling at her. "But don't forget for a second…Naru is, despite what I would like to tell you, dangerous. Never take her kindness for granted and always keep your guard around her."

The two girls nodded in agreement before leaving.

000000

The next morning, as agreed, Guy and Kurenai's groups met so Lee could learn the Chrysanthemum. Guy supported his students decision, Naru was eager to show off, and everyone else knew it would be simpler just to agree.

" Kurenai!" Guy yelled as they arrive. " It is good to see you and your youthful students!"

" Hi." said Kurenai with a barely hidden grimace. She hoped Lee learned quickly.

" Good morning fox-chan!" said Lee from where he was doing pushups. " I am ready to learn the technique!"

" Lee, do not skip ahead!" warned Guy. " We should still keep to the warmup routine!"

" Yes, Guy-sensei!" said Lee, jumping to his feet.

" Which is?" said Sakura tentatively.

" We spar for a while, jog, spar for a while, jog, then spar for a while and go for a before-lunch jog." said Tenten with a sigh. " Then, after lunch, they start their weight lifting, jogging, and sparring while Neji and I train by ourselves."

" Guy…if possible…could we cut that a bit short?" said Kurenai hopefully. " I had some chakra control exercises and genjutsu training for my students."

" Well…" said Guy, looking unhappy with the idea. " We could simply began the lesson after the first round of sparing…"

" Yosh!" said Lee, leaping to his feet. " Who will I be fighting first?"

" Not it." said Tenten and Neji in unison.

" I'll give it a shot." said Naru. Sakura and Ino gave her thankful looks as they walked towards Neji and Tenten. A moment before Lee began to dash forward in attack, Naru noticed Tenten looking at her. Tenten winked, sending a chill over Naru.

Naru recovered with barely enough time to dodge Lee's flying kick and roll away. He was almost as fast as she was, so she let her chakra flow and flipped backwards, landing behind him as he turned and delivering a punch to his back. Lee stumbled forward in surprise.

" How…" said Lee, looking to Naru in amazement. " I did not know we were using the gates!"

" I'm not. This is just how fast I am when I'm not stopping my chakra." said Naru, smiling boastfully.

" Yosh!" said Lee, pumping his arm. " This shall be a great challenge!"

00000

Sparing had gone well for Naru. Lee was one of the fastest opponents she had ever fought, but she still was quicker. They were nearly equal in strength and endurance, meaning that the fight was a long, hard brawl. When Guy finally stopped the sparring, Naru felt slightly tired, which was rare when her chakra was going normally.

" Yosh!" said Lee excitedly. " So how does the Chrysanthemum work?" Everyone else took seats to rest from their exertion while Guy, Lee, and Naru began to work with the gates.

" Well…first you open the gate and …wait…um…." Naru began to twist the end of her tail, finding it difficult to explain. " I could show you, but I'd need something to hit."

" How about this?" said Guy, dragging over a cloth training dummy. " It is like the one that I used to teach Lee the Lotus. "

"Okay!" said Naru, slapping her palms together and focusing her chakra. A moment later the gate blasted open and she sped off, wheeling around in a large arc to gain momentum before coming back to the dummy and delivering the opening kick, which launched it into the air. She lunged after it, delivering a series of countless punches and kicks which moved it faster and faster until it struck a tree and exploded. Naru landed and gasped for breath, recovering from the use of the technique.

" I see!" said Lee, writing in a small notebook. " It begins like the Lotus, but does not use the finishing move. You simply deliver a high speed combination that knocks an opponent into a tree."

" Uh, yeah." said Naru, smiling. She felt like she had been fighting for a hour as she walked over.

" And since it does not completely drain you, you can still fight afterwards!" said Lee, looking excited.

" Yes, but remember it does less damage, Lee." Guy pointed out before producing another training dummy. " Now, attempt it!"

Eagerly Lee blasted the first gate open, kicking the dummy into the air, and delivering the flurry of blows perfectly on his first try.

" I did it!" cheered Lee, walking over. " And I barely feel tired at all!"

" That is because the Chrysanthemum only used your white muscle tissue, which is for speed." explained Guy. " The Lotus gains its extra power by using the red muscle tissue as well."

" Wait, he did it already?" said Kurenai, standing up.

" Yeah. The Lotus took him a few more tries, but he learns taijutsu really quickly." said Tenten, standing up.

" Then why did we go through all that warm-up?" said Kurenai, annoyed.

" Because it's Lee and Guy." said Tenten with a sigh.

00000

" Alright, lunchtime." said Naru, stretching, Kurenai had decided they would spend the rest of the morning practicing taijutsu with Guy's team, but finally it was time for ramen.

" Yosh!" said Lee, excited about everything as usual. "Where should we go, fox-chan?" Naru blushed, caught off guard by Lee's proposal.

" Are you asking her on a date?" said Tenten, giving Lee a smarmy smile and elbowing his arm.

" No." said Lee, looking confused. " Why would you think that?"

Everyone around Lee sweat dropped.

" What you just said…it sounded like you were asking her on a date, Lee." said Tenten, sighing with exasperation.

" Why would I do that?" asked Lee. " I thought you only went on date's with people you were interested in."

" Lee!" shouted Tenten angrily. Lee recoiled in shock, unaware of the insult. " You've been fawning over her for days! You spend every moment near her complimenting her, asking for her advice, and doing what she says!"

" But…but she's blonde." said Lee, wincing.

" Huh?" said everyone, even Neji, in unison.

" Wait, you weren't hitting on me?" said Naru, speaking up. " But…you acted like you had a crush on me!"

" I did?" said Lee, looking surprised.

" You don't." said Naru, staring at the bizarre boy.

" No. I don't like blonde hair." said Lee bluntly. " I think of you as a friend and a rival, because you can better me in speed, but I have no romantic interest."

Before Tenten managed to slap Lee, Naru leap forward, giving him a crushing hug.

" Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou." Naru said so quickly it was barely understandable. "IjustfoundoutthatsomanypeoplelikemelatelyIjustwantedaregularfriendandIdidn'twanttoturn

youdownforadateandruinthat.ImeanyourniceandfunnybutIreallydpn'twanttodateyouoranything,butnotlikeSaskueyourreallynicebut…"

" Naru…I….can't….breathe…"gasped Lee. Everyone winced as the sound of ribs cracking began.

" Sorry!" said Naru, letting go. " I got really excited and…!"

" Its okay." said Tenten, stopping Naru. " He was kinda rude and he deserved it. You okay, Lee?"

" Mostly." said Lee, doubled over. " I think I need to go to the hospital."

" Ahh, don't be a baby." said Tenten, slapping Lee's back. Naru had to stifle a giggle as his eyes bulged.

00000

" Another! Chicken this time, please!" said Naru, putting down her empty bowl. Besides her sat Guy's team, slack jawed, and Kurenai's team, wearily looking to their wallets.

" That's…twenty three." said Lee in awe. His eyes sprang open wide. " Is this training?"

" Nobe. Jubt hugwy." Naru spoke through a mouthful of noodles. The look of contentment on her face was priceless.

" How can you have a appetite like that and be so skinny?" asked Tenten enviously. Naru just shrugged.

" I might be able to explain." said Kurenai. Everyone looked to her. " Naru's chakra moves far faster than ours. That's what makes her faster. It might also give her a faster metabolism."

" Still, that's crazy!" said Tenten as Naru put down the empty bowl.

" Another! Beef this time, please!" said Naru with a broad smile.

" That's…twenty four." said Lee, continuing his count.

" We should have never agreed to pay." whispered Ino to Sakura. " By tomorrow I won't have any money."

" But we have to." said Sakura, cringing as she handed the ramen girl the money.

A short while later, when Kurenai had forced Naru to stop for everyone's sake, the two teams parting ways. Kurenai took her students towards the Hokage's tower in hopes of getting a mission so that Ino and Sakura would have a little spending money. Naru seemed antsy, like she was having trouble slowing herself down.

The first thing they noticed at the tower was what appeared to be dozens of people in dress identical to Shino. They were standing about, conversing with other ninja, and seemed to be waiting. Sakura, Ino, and Kurenai got Goosebumps imagining the amount of insects present, but Naru found it quite interesting. She could smell dozens of bugs she had never before, guessing that they were more advanced bugs the clan used. Some of them smelled quite nice, like perfumes, only weak enough that the smell didn't knock her out. They arrived at the Hokage's office, where there were even more Aburmae. Naru picked up Shino's scent instantly, spotting him in the crowd.

" Ah, Kurenai, good timing." said the Hokage. " I was about to send word to the genin teams. We have missions for all of you."

" Good. That's what we were hoping for." said Kurenai. " Might I ask…?" she said, glancing to the Aburmae.

" Our clan has put out the mission requests." said a tall man that smelled like he was Shino's father. " Our supply of insects has become low due to a pest infesting out greenhouses and we require aid in retrieving new insects."

" Your clan's the bug experts, though." asked Naru, confused. " Why would you need help?"

" We do not require aid in locating or capturing the insects, merely transporting them back." Shino had spoken up, walking next to his father. Sakura and Ino, thanks to the Kurenai's instruction, were able to read his interest in Naru with ease. They caught a slight glance from his father to him, then to Naru.

" Well, we can be ready quickly." said Kurenai, accepting the mission.

" Since your team is new, we'll give them one close to the village." said the Hokage, looking over a scroll.

" There is one roughly a half day from here that is needed urgently, so we'll send you there."

" That is the akkei bug, correct?" asked Shino's father. The Hokage nodded. " Our clansmen will be waiting by the village gate at six tomorrow morning. Please be prompt."

" We will be!" said Naru cheerily. Ino and Sakura lacked her enthusiasm, but nodded in agreement.

00000

" One minute left." said Ino, looking at her watch. " Where are they?"

" They will probably be here exactly on time." said Kurenai, taking a bite of the apple that was her breakfast.

" What do you think they'll be like?" said Ino, sitting on a bench with a sigh.

" Shino, only older." said Sakura blandly.

" I hope we get Shino." said Naru, nose twitching. " I always liked him."

" Why?" said Ino, intrigued.

" He didn't stare at my ass." said Naru, sighing deeply.

" Language." warned Kurenai.

" Fine." said Naru, pouting. " He didn't stare at my butt."

" That would be impolite." said a female voice. They looked up and spotted an Aburmae woman and Shino walking towards them. Shino was blushing visibly. " I wouldn't tolerate such a thing."

" So were helping you?" asked Kurenai. The woman nodded.

" My son and I have expertise with this particular insect." said the woman formally. They could see the resemblance between her and Shino, but they looked like all the other Aburmae, making it less pronounced. " I am Aburmae Toumusi."

" Nice to meet you." sad Naru, smiling.

" You are Uzamaki Naru?" said Toumusi, walking over. " Yes, I recognize you. I can see why my son would be attracted to you."

Kurenai's team stood with wide eyes. Shino's blush spread over his entire face, but his mother continued.

" Shapely…aesthetically pleasing…" said Toumusi, looking Naru over. Naru felt like she was being examined like a merchant would examine a purchase. " Claws for a physical weapon, which would be likely passed on to your offspring, making better hosts…the tail, I am unsure of…I have been told you have enhanced senses?"

" Y-yes." said Naru, still shocked.

" Find the five kikai bugs I have hidden on the pink haired girl." Toumusi said, turning to Sakura. Ino smirked as Sakura began to panic, looking for the bugs. Naru sniffed a few times, getting the locations exact.

" There's one on the top of her head, one behind her right ear, one on her back, one on her sock, and…um…one in her pants." said Naru, listing the last one gingerly.

" Excellent." said Toumusi as the bugs flew off the shivering Sakura. " All senses are enhanced?"

" My nose is the best, but I can hear really well and see pretty good." said Naru, not even thinking of questioning the woman. She didn't seem like someone to disobey.

" Excellent." said Toumusi, walking over to her rosy-colored son. He squirmed slightly in embarrassment.

" I shall approve your out-of-clan mate with the elders. You may proceed with courting her. You will, however, not attempt copulation until I allow it."

" Yes, mother." said Shino in a strained voice.

" Uh, shall we get going?" said Kurenai, pointing out the gate.

00000

The silence was deafening as they walked to their destination. It was, suffice to say, the most awkward situation any of them had ever been in. Shino was unable to make eye contact with any of them, Kurenai, Ino, and Sakura could hardly keep themselves for laughing, and Naru was twisting her tail and trying to avoid Toumusi's appraising eyes.

Naru snapped out of it when she picked up the scent of several humans, a short distance from the road. She focused and could hear them, whispering to each other, but about what she didn't know. There was the sweet smell of honey in the air as well.

" Sensei." whispered Naru, slowing a bit and falling in pace next to Kurenai. " We are being watched."

" Do you know who they are?" Kurenai whispered back.

" No, but I can smell honey." Naru replied.

" Kamizuru." whispered Toumusi, coming beside them. " My insects detected them. They are a rival insect clan. It is likely they are here to ambush us."

" Should we strike first?" asked Kurenai.

" They have not likely set their trap up yet. Now would be the time." replied Toumusi. " I require a distraction while I send my kikai to block their insects."

" Naru, scout them out while we prepare genjutsu." said Kurenai. Naru nodded, sped her chakra up, and shot towards them at top speed. She could hear Kurenai telling Ino and Sakura to begin their techniques behind her while a roaring buzzing sound began to issue from the two Aburmae.

Before she broke the treeline, a cloud of bees emerged, hanging in the air like a thousand yellow needles. Naru brushed them aside with ease, walking though the mass and finding the four Kamizuru. One reacted with moderate speed, throwing a punch at her, but she blocked hard. There was a pop as the mans wrist cracked, and he slowly recoiled, roaring in pain. A few of the bee's attempted to attack her, but she was able to move away from the feeble stings. The bug user's seemed like they were inexperienced at close combat, so Naru decided to attack, seeing how much damage she could do. The first one crumpled from a high speed kick and flew backwards in slow motion, crashing into a tree. The other two slowly drew back in panic, but Naru slammed a pair of punches into them, sending them crashing to the ground.

She walked triumphantly from the woods towards her team and found two large clouds of insects about to crash into each other. Kurenai, Ino, and Sakura were still preparing their genjutsu, but they were doing it far slower than usual. Naru walked back to her team as the undirected bees were shredded by the kikai. She calmed herself, focused her chakra, and with far more difficulty than normal slowed it to a halt.

" How many?" asked Kurenai, finishing and holding her genjutsu.

" Four, but I knocked them out." Naru reported.

" You've been gone ten seconds!" said Kurenai in shock.

" Huh?" Naru exclaimed. " But…that was at least a few minutes!"

" I couldn't even see you moving, Naru." said Kurenai, sighing as she let then genjutsu fall.

" As the Kamizunu were not directing their insects, she appears to be telling the truth." said Toumusi, walking over. " I was not aware of her speed."

" She isn't usually that fast." said Kurenai, marveling at her student. " Did anything feel different?"

" Well, it took longer to slow my chakra." said Naru, thinking deep. " But it usually does after I've eaten."

" Eaten?" said Kurenai, raising a eyebrow.

" Yeah. Yesterday, after we had ramen, I could barely slow it down." Naru replied.

" I see. Then we know what's going on." said Kurenai, sighing. " Naru, other than at the ramen place, do you feel full after eating?"

" No." said Naru, rubbing her stomach. " I usually still feel really hungry."

" That's because you need so much more food." said Kurenai, looking at her apologetically. " Since your chakra moves fast, it requires more energy, but you've never eaten enough. I think foods going to cost you a bit from now on. You were able to move as fast as Lee."

" Lee's way slower." said Sakura, correcting Kurenai.

" Not with his training weights off." said Kurenai, giving them a knowing smile.

" He was wearing weights?" said Naru in shock.

" Not to intterupt, but we need to continue." interrupted Toumusi.

" Sorry." said Kurenai, returning to the mission. " What if there's more of the Kamizunu waiting for other teams?"

" Shino and I have sent out messenger bugs. It will not be long until every team is notified. Our kikai are superior and will neutralize the threats, but if they had been caught off guard, they may have lost."

Everyone fell into step with Toumusi, wishing they could share her confidence.

0000

" We have arrived." said Toumsui as they came to a large flower-filled field. Sakura and Ino looked around, admiring the scenery.

" I figured it would be some sort of swamp!" said Ino, rushing to a flower.

" Me too!" said Naru, looking around.

" We do not have time to admire the location." said Toumusi sternly. " We are looking for a small beetle. It has a red shell with three yellow spots on each wings." Toumusi and Shino removed their packs, drawing out a number of collapsible plastic boxes and handing them out.

" What do they smell like?" said Naru hopefully.

" Here." said Shino, holding our his hand. A small beetle crawled from his sleeve and flew over to her. Naru sniffed, getting the scent. It wouldn't be hard to find them now.

" Thanks!" said Naru as the beetle flew back. Shino blushed as their gazes met for a moment, but he quickly shook it off and returned to the job.

Naru relaxed, letting her chakra flow normally. As everyone else came to a crawl she ran around, plucking the near motionless bugs from the grass. The bugs were usually away from other bugs, likely due to the agitating scent they had. Naru guessed that the Aburmae used them to keep bugs from places they needed insect free.

It didn't take long for her to fill her box, Sakura, Ino, and Kurenai's. Shino and Toumusi finished quickly, having brought the bugs to them with chakra. As Naru came to a halt by her team, she noticed that they were moving normally again.

" Hey, I'm not really fast anymore!" said Naru, slowing her chakra.

" You did seem to slow down with time." said Toumusi. Naru's stomach suddenly rumbled loudly and she realized she was starved.

" I think you worked though all the ramen." said Kurenai, snapping a insect box shut. " Looks like your fully speed isn't something you can always use."

" Huh?" said Naru, blinking.

" When you let your chakra flow again, you use up all the energy you get from the food." explained Kurenai. " You slowly go back to normal. Your still fast, but not as fast as before. It looks like your going to have to learn to balance out the use of your speed."

" Aww." whined Naru, sighing. That sounded like a lot of work.

" And you'll need to go for something to eat." Kurenai finished. " Don't always just go for ramen."

Shino coughed slightly, drawing their attention.

" If that is the case, may I offer to take you to dinner as a first date." said Shino, straining slightly. Kurenai almost rolled her eyes. She knew the bug user's were rather blunt and unromantic, and the…lameness…of his offer was almost embarrassing.

" Sure!" said Naru, smiling. Kurenai, Ino, and Sakura sweat dropped. Thanks to their training at reading people, they knew Naru had been genuine, not just humoring Shino.

_Naru and Shino…_thought Kurenai. _Their both polite, strange, and haven't even considered why they are even going on a date. They'll get married for sure._


	7. Chapter 7

"So…" said Naru, putting down her third bowl of ramen. She had, despite Kurenai's suggestions, had Shino take her to the ramen stand. It had been somewhat awkward to sit there, not knowing what to expect. " What do we do on a date?"

" I do not know." Shino replied quietly. " It is not a tradition within my clan and I have no experience with the subject."

" Me either." said Naru with a sigh. She had thought it was sweet of Shino to ask her out, but she was really hoping he would know what to do. " What was that thing your mom said about the elders?" she asked, trying to make conversation.

" When pursuing a relationship outside of the clan, the clan elders permission is required. Only so many outsiders can enter the family and have our bloodline stay strong." explained Shino with a blush.

" Oh." Naru said, taking a bite of noodles. " That sounds like you plan on getting married with me."

" That is one of the goals of dating." said Shino, adjusting his glasses. " To see if marriage would be possible."

" I think your kind of young for those thoughts." said the ramen chef, giving them a smile.

" I think it's romantic." said the ramen girl, giving Naru a jealous smirk. Naru and Shino blushed deeply.

" Uh…and…one more question?" Naru said, twisting her tail nervously. " Um…when your mother was giving you all those orders, she said not to 'attempt copulation' or something? What is that?"

Shino blushed a neon red and began sweating profusely. The ramen girl giggled and the chef gave Shino a sympathetic look.

"I-I…" Shino stuttered, unable to form a word. Naru giggled. He was cute when he was nervous.

" Never mind, I guess." said Naru, returning to her ramen. Shino sighed, calming himself down. " So what do you want to do?" she asked. " Since we don't know what to do on a date, we could go train or go on a run or go bother Iruka-sensei or have more ramen or something you want to do or talk or something."

" I believe that it is traditional to talk." said Shino. " What should we discuss?"

" Hmm….ah!" said Naru, a longstanding question popping into her head. " How do you control your bugs?"

" There are various techniques." Shino explained, face lighting up. Naru thought he would be more comfortable discussing bugs than anything else. " The most important is using chakra to guide them, which is used to direct the swarm at close range…."

Shino launched into a lengthy explanation of the techniques, with Naru listening in fascination. It had always looked so easy, but there were many steps and techniques. While she listened, every few minutes or so a small bug would fly to Shino and crawl down the neck of his coat, departing a minute or two later.

" What's with them?" interrupted Naru, pointing our a arriving bug.

" You can detect it?" said Shino in surprise.

" Yeah. I can see it and hear it flying." Naru replied.

" They are messenger bugs, the smallest insect used by my clan." explained Shino. " They carry information and messages between us, allowing for communication between the entire clan at once. I am currently carrying out several conversations, being briefed about our new insect supplies, and being told by my mother to let you talk about yourself."

" You want me to?" asked Naru. Shino had seemed to be enjoying talking about the bugs.

" I believe I should let you." said Shino, adjusting his glasses. " It would be impolite for me not to listen."

" I'll try and go slow enough to make sense." said Naru, smiling.

" Slow enough?" asked Shino, confused.

" Since I move quicker I talk quicker. Unless I talk slow, even with my chakra stopped, no one can understand me." explained Naru, a twinge of sadness in her voice.

" If you would…could you demonstrate how quickly you talk?" said Shino.

" OkayItalklikethiswheni'mnotslowingmyselfdown." said Naru.

" Thenwewillbeabletocommunicateeffeicently." said Shino, surprisingly matching her speed. It took her a moment to get used to him. " My clan uses faster vocalization for more efficient communication with our kikai. I was also slowing myself down."

" Really?" said Naru, smiling brightly.

000000

After a conversation to fast for others to understand, Naru felt thrilled. She'd never been able to talk normally, and she found it very enjoyable. They talked about how fast she could go, the First Gate, how she had to shampoo her tail or it got matted, her claws, Shino's kikai, ramen, how Sasuke was stuck up and Kiba smelled bad, training, ramen, how strict Toumusi was, and ramen. It had gotten late, so they decided to go home. Shino was told by the ramen chef it was a good idea to walk Naru home and did so, continuing their conversation.

" My apologies for not knowing what to do. Social situations are not my forte." said Shino as they arrived at Naru's apartment building.

" Well, I'm a girl. I should have known what to do." said Naru, giving him a supportive smile. " I had fun talking, though. Next time we should go running too."

" That would be acceptable." said Shino. They stood for a moment in silence.

Naru may not be well versed in relationships, but she knew that you kissed at the end of a date. Unfortunately, she was the shortest girl of her class and Shino was the tallest boy, which meant it would have been awkward even if Shino made a move, which he didn't seem to be doing. Naru sighed. She wanted to get one part of the date right, even if it was only the last part.

" Goodnight, Naru." said Shino in his detached voice.

" I-uh, there's one last thing we have to do." said Naru before Shino turned. " At the end of a date your supposed to kiss me."

" Oh." said Shino, tensing visibly. He leaned over awkwardly, pulling his high collar down. Naru stood on her tiptoes, meeting him partway. Their lips made contact and for a moment, Naru felt a pleasant cold shiver run though her. She pulled back, smiling.

" G-good night, Shino-kun." said Naru, blushing deeply. She walked up the stairs towards her apartment, leaving Shino standing there. Had she waited a moment she would have noticed he fell sideways to the ground.

00000

It was nearly midnight when Shino arrived home. He made his way towards his room, but found his mother and father waiting.

" I assume it went badly." said his father.

" No." replied Shino, curious to why he would believe that.

" Then how did you injure your cheek?" asked his mother. Shino put his hand to his cheek and winced. There was a bruise on it.

" I believe that I sustained this when I lost consciousness." Shino stated. His patents looked at him confused. " We were not sure of custom, but Naru believed that a kiss was a traditional ending to a date. Likely due to stress, shortly after the kiss I lost fainted."

" I see." said Toumusi. " Was the attempt successful?"

" I…believe so." said Shino. " She stated that she enjoyed the experience and I found it to be acceptable."

" Are you sure that you would find her an acceptable mate?" asked his father. Shino fell silent for a moment, considering his response.

" She is, unlike most females outside our clan, not afraid of our insects. I find her presence pleasing and believe she feels the same. And, finally, her genetic advantages would be highly beneficial to the clan. My conclusion is that she is a likely prospect." he said definitively.

His parents nodded in agreement, validating his argument. For the Aburmae, what he had just said was highly romantic.

00000

" How do you think it went?" Sakura asked Ino. " I doubt Shino was very interesting."

" Yeah. He probably got bugs in the ramen." said Ino. " I hope Naru's not too put off."

" It's too bad bug-boys so lame." said Sakura, sighing as they arrived at the training grounds. " Naru could have used a boyfriend."

" We could too." said Ino. Sakura and Ino looked downward and gave heaving sighs.

" Sasuke-kun…why?" Sakura said in despair.

" She's the only girl that doesn't want him." Ino replied. " I guess he likes being snubbed."

Click, went the lights in their heads.

" If we snub him too…." said Sakura excitedly.

" He'll fall in love with us like with Naru!" said Ino, squealing giddily. " We'll have to completely ignore him!"

" But Naru did better than that!" said Sakura, thinking back. " She punched him! What will trump that?"

" Kick him in the crotch." said Naru, landing by them. " You two seen sensei?"

" No." said Sakura. " How long were you there?" she asked, hoping Naru had not overheard them talking about Shino.

However, Naru didn't seem to hear. She simply walked over and lay in the grass, staring upwards with a contented smile. Ino and Sakura could swear they could see hearts forming over her head.

" Bug-boy…did that?" whispered Sakura in disbelief. " She looks like she just got kissed by Sasuke-kun or something."

" Don't forget, she's weird." Ino whispered back.


End file.
